Sovereignty exercise gets underway

If Brig. Gen. Chris Whitecross is a little in the dark about the specifics of Operation Nanook, it's with good reason.

After all, Whitecross, like hundreds of other soldiers and staff from a half-dozen other government agencies, isn't being told the specifics of the exercise she's leading, but also a part of.

"As the commander of the actual operation, I don't have the details because, of course, I have to make the decisions and let the chain of command and the decision-making network work," she said.

Operation Nanook started Tuesday and continues until Aug. 17, but the centrepiece, a drug bust operation near Resolution Island and environmental spill exercise near Kimmirut, runs from August 11 to 14.

The drug bust scenario involves a boat landing on the shores of Resolution Island. Whitecross said the military will get intelligence reports about the boat and then coordinate a response with the RCMP.

Whitecross said the goal of Operation Nanook is to help the military work better with other government agencies. The Coast Guard, RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, Transport Canada, Public Safety Canada and the Government of Nunavut are all involved in the exercises.

Operation Nanook comes at a time of unprecedented interest, at home and abroad, in the Arctic. Russia last week landed two small submarines on the sea floor under the North Pole, claiming a huge swath of ocean territory potentially rich in minerals and oil and gas as an extension of its territory.

Peter MacKay, Canada's foreign minister, ridiculed the exercise, the Globe and Mail reported last week.

"We've established a long time ago that these are Canadian waters and this is Canadian property," the newspaper quoted him saying. "You can't go around the world these days dropping a flag somewhere. This isn't the 14th or 15th century."

Whitecross, however, downplayed the significance of the Russian expedition and said it doesn't affect Operation Nanook.

"The placement of the [Russian] flag was certainly a scientific mission, it's got nothing to do with the military," she said.

Michael Byers, a political scientist at University of British Columbia and director of Vancouver's Liu Institute for Global Issues, said exercises like Operation Nanook are useful for demonstrating Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic, particularly when they're held near the approaches of the Northwest Passage.

Byers said Canada has the people and equipment to adequately police the North, but they're not based in the North. A good start, he said, would be to base a search and rescue helicopter in Nunavut.

"I cannot believe, especially with the International Polar Year happening, that we don't have one of those big yellow helicopters based in Resolute or Igloolik," he said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was in Fort Simpson and Yellowknife Wednesday, was expected to travel to Resolute Bay Thursday, and Iqaluit Friday, to make Arctic policy announcements, the Canadian Press reported this week.