University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository University of Calgary Press University of Calgary Press Open Access Books 2014 A historical and legal study of sovereignty in the Canadian north : terrestrial sovereignty, 1870–1939 Smith, Gordon W. University of Calgary Press "A historical and legal study of sovereignty in the Canadian north : terrestrial sovereignty, 1870–1939", Gordon W. Smith; edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer. University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta, 2014 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/50251 book http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca A HISTORICAL AND LEGAL STUDY OF SOVEREIGNTY IN THE CANADIAN NORTH: TERRESTRIAL SOVEREIGNTY, 1870–1939 By Gordon W. Smith, Edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer ISBN 978-1-55238-774-0 THIS BOOK IS AN OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK. 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Acknowledgement: We acknowledge the wording around open access used by Australian publisher, re.press, and thank them for giving us permission to adapt their wording to our policy http://www.re-press.org 15 341 The East ern Arct ic Pat rol, t he Royal Canadian Mount ed Police, and O t her Government Act ivi t ies, 1922–39 The background of the institution of an annual patrol voyage in the eastern Arctic after the First World War has already been provided in chapter 10. To recapitulate briefly, it involved a combina- tion of circumstances and events which developed after the war, including Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s campaign for more activity in the North; the unwillingness of Knud Rasmussen to acknowledge Canadian authority in Ellesmere Island and the Danish government’s apparent support of his stand; the fear of Danish, American, and Norwegian infiltrations and claims in the Arctic islands; information emerging from the Reindeer-Muskox Commission’s investigation and report; and a growing feeling in official circles that it had become absolutely essential to take steps to establish Canada’s authority and sovereignty in these outlying territories. In this atmosphere of stress and worry, consideration was at first given to a plan that involved sending an emergency expedition to the northern islands in the autumn of 1920. This plan was soon abandoned as impractical, and subsequent efforts concentrated on prepar- ing an expedition for the summer of 1921. John Davidson Craig of the Dominion Lands Surveys and the International Boundary Commission was given overall command of the planning and of the expedition itself. Captain H. C. Pickels of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, was appointed ship’s captain; the CGS Arctic, which for several years had been in the lightship service in the lower St. Lawrence River, was transferred from the Department of Marine and Fisheries to the Department of the Interior, and negotiations were carried on with Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who wanted to com- mand the expedition. Doubts and disagreements in official circles about Stefansson and his role, coupled with the entry of English explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as a rival to Stefansson, led the Canadian government to drop its plans for a 1921 expedition in May of that year. The work of re- pairing and outfitting the Arctic continued at a slower pace, but Captain Pickels, who had immedi- ate charge of this work, died on 1 October 1921, and the ship was left in winter quarters at Quebec until June 1922. This was approximately the situation when the Northwest Territories and Yukon Branch of the Department of the Interior received instructions on 9 June 1922 to prepare as quickly as possible for an Arctic voyage, which Ottawa officials had decided upon for that summer. 342 Figure 15-1: CGS Arctic near Port Burwell, Quebec. George R. Lancefield / Library and Archives Canada / PA-096482. The Eastern Arctic Patrol ship he had already commanded on four north- (1922) ern expeditions. A total of 950 tons of cargo were loaded in great haste, including 500 tons The lateness of the decision to send out the ex- of coal for the ship and 150 for the police posts pedition, and the shortness of the navigation that were to be built, 225 tons of lumber for the season in northern waters, made it necessary police buildings, and 75 tons of food and other to complete preparations in a hurry. John Craig supplies. The expedition totalled forty-three documented the bustle and confusion that oc- men, including Craig, Bernier, and the crew of curred between 9 June and the date of sailing.1 five officers and twenty men; the Royal -Can Captain Joseph-Elzéar Bernier, who had already adian Mounted Police (RCMP) detachment of offered his services,2 was appointed in June to Inspector C. E. Wilcox and nine others; and six succeed Captain Pickels as ship’s captain, thus additional members with scientific, technical, reuniting this seventy-year-old veteran and the and administrative responsibilities. The last A HISTORICAL AND LEGAL STUDY OF SOVEREIGNTY IN THE CANADIAN NORTH group comprised the expedition’s medical of- the Department of the Interior. Major Logan ficer Dr. Leslie D. Livingstone, the Air Board’s succeeded in finding a suitable site for an air representative Major Robert A. Logan, the landing strip on the opposite side of the valley. surveyor and meteorologist L. O. Brown, the With freeze-up already starting, the Arctic de- assistant surveyor T. P. Reilly, the cinematog- parted on 29 August, leaving behind Inspect- rapher G. H. Valiquette, and the commanding or Wilcox, six of the RCMP constables, and a officer’s secretary W. H. Grant. Plans to send a family of Pond Inlet Inuit who had agreed to 343 larger and more varied group of scientists were accompany the Mounties and stay with them abandoned, mainly because they would have for one year. little time ashore to do their work. On the way south, the expedition stopped After five weeks of “feverish activity,” all to examine Dundas Harbour, near Cape War- was ready aboard the Arctic on the evening of render and the southeastern extremity of Devon 17 July, “the engines turned over under their Island, to ascertain its suitability as the site for own steam for the first time in several years,”3 another police post in the future. The harbour and the expedition sailed early the next mor- was large and almost completely landlocked, ning. Some minor engine problems caused with a sheltered spot suitable for a post at one short delays, but after these were overcome, the side, not far from a good anchorage. Returning ship passed through the Strait of Belle Isle and to Pond Inlet on 6 September, the men discov- northwards along the Greenland coast with- ered that the harbour was still blocked by ice; out much difficulty. It reached Bylot Island on however, the ship got close enough to land the 15 August, but ice prevented landing at Pond supplies and equipment for the second RCMP Inlet as anticipated to establish a police post post that the expedition established. The ship there, so the expedition proceeded north to made contact with Staff Sergeant Alfred Her- Ellesmere Island. Sverdrup’s Fram Fiord on the bert Joy of the RCMP, who had come to Pond south coast had been tentatively selected as the Inlet in September 1921 to investigate the mur- site of the police post on Ellesmere, but the ap- der of a white trader named Robert Janes, the proaches were still completely blocked by ice, second officer on Bernier’s 1910–11 expedition.