New proposal would see Hans Island split equally between Canada and Denmark

Canadian Forces personnel raise Canada’s flag on Hans Island in 2005. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE)

ADRIAN HUMPHREYS, NATIONAL POST
Postmedia News

Canada and Denmark appear close to agreement in their territorial dispute over Hans Island, with an amicable plan for both countries to split ownership of the tiny, barren rock being put forward.

A plan to divide the island — a 1.3 square-kilometre rock between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Greenland, a self-governing territory under the Danish crown — through the middle would give Canada a second foreign land border and settle a spat that captured international attention as much for its absurdity as its potential seriousness.

The position taken by bi-national negotiators is to connect the 1.2-km gap in the existing maritime boundary across the landmass, sources say. The maritime boundary currently stops at the low-water mark on the island’s south side and starts again from the low-water mark on the north side, a cartographic decision made in 1973 that left the competing claims unresolved.

Connecting the dots would divide Hans Island almost precisely in half.

But whether Ottawa and Copenhagen approve the settlement plan, and when it might be unveiled, may be a harder decision for politicians.

“The political complexities of making an announcement are, in many ways, much more complicated than settling the actual territorial dispute,” said Whitney Lackenbauer, associate professor of history at St. Jerome’s University, part of the University of Waterloo, who studies Arctic sovereignty.

“Both governments publicly staked their sovereignty claims. The early messaging of ‘standing up for Canada’ puts our government in a difficult position.”

Rob Huebert, an Arctic security specialist at the University of Calgary’s Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, said: “Settling is not necessarily a bad thing — it gets the irritant out of the way. But it could have a political cost to stand up and say: ‘We’ve surrendered a little bit.'”

Despite word of a draft settlement, a spokesman for the Minister of Foreign Affairs said Ottawa has not yet accepted a plan.

“Canada and Denmark are co-operating in developing a mutually agreeable way forward with respect to Hans Island,” Joseph Lavoie said.

“The dispute continues to be well-managed in accordance with the 2005 Joint Statement on Hans Island. Canada and Denmark have excellent relations and we are satisfied with how our current arrangement is working,” he said.

Jingoistic posturing over ownership of the frigid rock started in earnest in 2004, in response to the National Post highlighting the island as one of four boundary disputes causing concern over Canada’s ability to maintain sovereignty of its vast northern region.

News that Danish warships and naval personnel were visiting the island caused alarm.

Svend Roed Nielsen, the Danish government’s top representative in Canada at the time, told the Post his government was trying to “keep our ammunition dry” in the dispute.

Bill Graham, then Canada’s minister of Foreign Affairs, retorted in Parliament: “I can assure this House, this government will not surrender any sovereignty of any of Canada’s lands in the Arctic or anywhere else in the world.”

The coverage prompted a rally in front of a Danish consulate by protesters declaring “We Eat Danish for Breakfast,” and a visit to the island by Canadian soldiers — who captured a Danish flag and erected a 12-foot pole, topped by a Canadian flag — in a military operation code-named Exercise Frozen Beaver.

Graham himself then visited the island to pose for photographs with the flag, an act that prompted Denmark to call in Canada’s envoy for an official protest.

The dispute between such symmetrically soft powers over a barren rock piqued the fancy of the international press, eliciting bemused articles and sarcastic cartoons.

Despite the rhetoric, it now appears it will be settled as it was always likely to be — in quiet compromise.

In 2005, an agreement to negotiate a settlement was signed by Ottawa and Copenhagen and lawyers from the two foreign ministries have been working on it since.

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