University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2012-12-20 Staking a Claim: The Evolution of Canada's Arctic Maritime Sovereignty, 1880-1990 Lajeunesse, Adam Lajeunesse, A. (2012). Staking a Claim: The Evolution of Canada's Arctic Maritime Sovereignty, 1880-1990 (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27870 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/375 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Staking a Claim The Evolution of Canada's Arctic Maritime Sovereignty, 1880-1990 by Adam Lajeunesse A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY CALGARY, ALBERTA DECEMBER, 2012 © Adam Lajeunesse 2012 Abstract In April 1988, Canada and the United States of America were locked in a series of high level negotiations surrounding the question of Arctic maritime sovereignty. During one of the meetings between Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan in which the question was discussed, the Prime Minister produced a globe, pointed to the Arctic and said simply, “Ron that’s ours. We own it lock, stock, and icebergs.” The legal and political status of the Arctic waters has always been a complex and uncertain question; yet, at the same time, it has always enjoyed a remarkable simplicity for most Canadians and their government. While no Canadian government of the past century would question the country’s absolute right to sovereignty in the High North, few have looked beyond that political certainty to examine the basis of that right. What exactly is Canadian sovereignty, what does it consist of, how is it justified and what has the country done to secure it? This dissertation is primarily an examination of those crucial questions. It covers the legal, political, military and economic factors which affected (or prevented) the formation of policy and the international framework in which these took place. It charts the evolution of that policy, from the late nineteenth century through to the final declaration of straight baselines in 1985, and studies the factors which guided and influenced Canadian decision makers. It is a history of Canada's quest to win international – and particularly American – recognition for its Arctic sovereignty while demonstrating how both countries still managed to work together in the region towards their mutual goals. ii Acknowledgements The writing of this dissertation would never have been possible without the generous financial support provided by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council and the Government of Alberta and I would like to gratefully acknowledge the role this assistance played in the completion of this work. I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. David Bercuson for his proofreading and insights. To all of my close friends who have been with me on this long journey: Abe, Christine and the Matts; grad school would have been a far less enjoyable experience without all of you. To the censors working at the Access to Information Department in Ottawa, your tireless quest to obscure Canadian history has done more than anything to refine my research skills and teach me the virtue of patience. Finally I have to thank my wife Crystal for the love and support which has made the process of getting a PhD so much easier and, most importantly, for her refraining from gloating too excessively when she beat me to it. Dedication iii To my girls, Sofi and Emmy iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Abbreviations vi Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Origins of Canada’s Arctic Maritime Sovereignty, 1880-1950 18 Chapter 2: The Sector, Ice-Islands and Straight Baselines, 1950-1958 61 Chapter 3: Regulating American Activity in the Arctic 102 Chapter 4: The Law of the Sea, Fisheries and Canada’s First Arctic Claim 141 Chapter 5: The Manhattan Crisis and the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act 171 Chapter 6: The Solidification of Canadian Policy, 1970-1979 223 Chapter 7: The Practical Requirements of Arctic Defence 271 Chapter 8: The Voyage of the Polar Sea and the Establishment of Straight Baselines 303 Conclusion 358 Bibliography 376 Appendix 1: Northwest Passage Transits: 1900 – 1985 394 Appendix 2: American Submarines in Canadian Arctic Waters, 1960-1986 399 v Abbreviations AAF: United States Army Air Force ACND: Advisory Committee on Northern Development ARCCSSS: Arctic Subsurface Surveillance System ASW: Anti-Submarine Warfare AWPPA: Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act CCG: Canadian Coast Guard CDRS: Canadian Defence Research Staff CF: Canadian Forces DEW Line: Distant Early Warning Line DHH: Department of History and Heritage Archives DND: Department of National Defence DREA: Defence Research Establishment’s Atlantic Naval Laboratory DREP: Defence Research Establishment’s Pacific Naval Laboratory DWT: Deadweight tons ECAREG: Eastern Canada Vessel Traffic Services Zone GIUK: Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom HBC: Hudson’s Bay Company ICAO: International Civil Aviation Organization ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile ICJ: International Court of Justice ILC: United Nations International Law Commission IMCO: Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMO after 1982) IMO: International Maritime Organization JAWS: Joint Arctic Weather Station LAC: Library and Archives Canada LNG: Liquid Natural Gas MP: Member of Parliament NARA: National Archives and Records Administration NHH: Naval History and Heritage Archives NORDREG: Canadian Arctic Vessel Traffic Reporting System RCAF: Royal Canadian Air Force RCMP: Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCN: Royal Canadian Navy SOSUS: Sound Surveillance System SLBM: Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile SLCM: Submarine Launched Cruise Missile SSN: Attack Submarine, Nuclear SSBN: Ballistic Missile Submarine, Nuclear SUBICEX: Submarine Ice Exercise UNCLOS: United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea USAF: United States Air Force USN: United States Navy USCG: United States Coast Guard vi Introduction In December 1954, while announcing the creation of the Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources, Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent took the opportunity to emphasise the need for a renewed focus and emphasis on Canada's northern territories – a region that, the Prime Minister lamented, had historically been governed in “a fit of absence of mind.”1 This phrase had been borrowed from the Victorian historian J.R. Seeley, who had first used it to describe the process by which Great Britain had acquired its empire. According to Seeley, the British had come to secure and govern a quarter of the globe almost by accident, without really intending it and without ever truly understanding what they were doing, while they were doing it.2 At the time, St. Laurent’s use of the phrase seemed apt. Canada had certainly acquired its northern territories in the same fashion. At the time of Confederation, what was to become the Canadian Arctic remained a British possession. Divided between Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory, the Arctic was nominally owned and controlled by the Hudson’s Bay Company and, through it, Great Britain. To the young federal government, led by Sir John A. Macdonald, the interior, with its vast potential for mining, logging, agriculture and settlement, represented the future of the country. The Dominion government hoped and expected to inherit those vast British territories, yet little thought was given to the seemingly barren and unproductive regions farther north. In fact, the eventual transfer of the British Arctic to the new Dominion of Canada was more a matter of convenience than a purposeful attempt to strengthen the fledgling nation. And, after the American purchase of Alaska in 1867, preventing the region from 1 Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 8 December, 1954, 22nd Parliament, 1st Session, pp. 698. 2 J.R. Seeley, The Expansion of England (London: Macmillan and Co., 1891), pp. 8. 1 falling into the hands of the United States was no small consideration. As such, on June, 23, 1870 the territories of the Hudson’s Bay Company were formally transferred to Canada by an Imperial order-in-council. After the transfer, there remained little enthusiasm on the part of the Canadian government to occupy or govern this vast and inaccessible northern space. During those years in the late nineteenth century, there was more than enough work to be done settling the prairies, dealing with their occasionally restive inhabitants and building the infrastructure needed to connect the region to the eastern provinces. In 1882, while establishing the provisional districts of Athabaska, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Assiniboia, the Dominion government noted that steps to expand governance to the remaining lands in the North must wait until “some influx of population or other circumstances shall occur to make such provision more imperative than it would at present seem to be.”3 Developing and governing the Arctic was simply not a priority at the time. Despite this general lack of interest, foreign activity in the region still managed