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Operation Lancaster Designed To Assert Canadian Sovereignty in The Arctic |
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Written by Staff
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Saturday, 12 August 2006 |
Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Saturday launched Operation Lancaster, a 12-day military exercise in the eastern Arctic designed to assert Canada’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the North along the eastern and northern coasts of Baffin Island.
Speaking in Iqaluit, Nunavut the prime minister said that Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic is recognized by 150 countries that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea adding, “The North is poised to take a much bigger role in Canada’s economic and social development, we must ensure the unique ecosystem of the North, and the unique cultural traditions of the First Peoples of the North, are respected and protected.”
The operation will see sailors, soldiers, airmen and airwomen conducting operations in support of sovereignty and surveillance of the Baffin areas as well as the waters of Lancaster Sound, the eastern entrance/terminus of Canadian internal arctic waters.
The joint task forces will conduct routine Sovereignty Patrols (air, land, sea) northward up the Baffin Coast and in the Lancaster Sound region. HMCS Montreal will stop at Devon Island where a RCMP grave restoration will take place. The operation’s contingent will then join together in Pond Inlet to take part in a community day on August 21. The operation continues with an integrated fisheries patrol involving the Canadian Navy and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, operating in the Davis Strait enroute back to Iqaluit.
Operation Lancaster follows another similar operation, Operation Beaufort, which is currently taking place in the Western Arctic. |
