Canucks, Danes to join forces in High Arctic

Denmark’s Sirius sled dog patrol team will join Canadian Rangers and regular forces for the 2010 edition of Operation Nunalivut, the Canadian Forces’ springtime High Arctic sovereignty exercise.

Danish and Canadian forces will conduct patrols from Alert, including one to Ward Hunt Island off the Northern tip of Ellesmere Island.

“The primary intent of this operation is to assert Canadian sovereignty in the High Arctic by providing a boots-on-the-ground Canadian Forces patrol presence,” a Joint Task Force North spokeswoman said in an email.

A closing ceremony is slated for April 26 in Alert and will include a demonstration parachute jump and displays from Nunalivut participants and Defence Research and Development Canada.

The Sirius patrol team is responsible for patrolling and enforcing Danish sovereignty over a massive chunk of Northern Greenland.

Joint military exercises between NATO allies Denmark and Canada are common.

But Nunalivut will take place fairly close to Hans Island, the site of a border dispute between the two countries that’s located in the Nares Strait.