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Forces' Arctic patrol more than just an exercise
BOB WEBER
Canadian Press
Dundas Harbour, Nunavut — Canadian soldiers, sailors, air crews and police officers gathered on one of the remotest points in the country on the weekend to project their nation's sovereignty over the Arctic into the future and pay tribute to those who guarded it in the past.
“It's an honour to be up here doing this,” said RCMP Const. David Lawson, brushing a coat of fresh white paint on the picket fence surrounding the graves of two brother officers who died 80 years ago while posted to this rocky shoreline high above the Arctic Circle.
The work crew was dispatched to Dundas Harbour on Devon Island as part of Operation Lancaster, the Navy's first mission to the disputed Northwest Passage in more than a generation.
Over the course of the 12-day exercise, soldiers landed on surf-pounded beaches and sailors fired across the bow of a Coast Guard icebreaker to practise boarding techniques. The frigate HMCS Montreal patrolled the crystalline waters with the smaller HMCS Goose Bay and Moncton while icebergs drifted majestically by in the near-24-hour daylight.
Aurora surveillance planes cruised overhead while a Griffin helicopter moved soldiers into observation posts along the waters Canada claims for itself.
But after the final fence post around the graves of Constable Victor Maisonneuve and Constable William Stephens had been reinforced and repainted, the manoeuvres grew briefly silent Saturday as members of all five participating services doffed their headgear in remembrance.
“We remember the goals and we remember the dedication that brought them to this place,” prayed navy chaplain John Finlayson. “As we remember their lives, we pledge ourselves also to work for justice, with integrity and with goodwill for all people.”
The grave restoration was a moving echo of the work the Forces are conducting in defence of Canada's disputed sovereignty over the Arctic waters, said Col. Chris Whitecross, commander of the military in the North.
“We're here for sovereignty,” she said. “These guys, the RCMP who were here back in the 1920s, they were here for sovereignty as well. Their mission was to be a foot on the ground to show the world that we are here.
“They were, in fact, pioneers of what we're doing.”
While Canada maintains it controls the seas around the High Arctic islands — including environmental regulation — countries such as the United States have long argued that they should be international waters.
Experts doubt the Northwest Passage will ever be free enough of ice to be a reliable commercial shipping channel. But several factors are combining to increase its shipping traffic.
High commodity and energy prices are making Arctic reserves economically feasible. New technology is increasing the ice capability of commercial ships.
And reduced sea ice has caused a mini-boom in Arctic tourism. Even Dundas Harbour's lonely graves saw visits from several cruise ships last week.
That's why Capt. Jonathan Hubble found himself dangling from a rope ladder over the side of the Montreal on Thursday night, hopping into a rubber motorboat and zooming over rough seas with a section of his fellow Van Doos to set up an observation post on the south side of the passage.
The landing was successful, but the surf swamped the boat on the steep beach. The soldiers were forced to stand waist-deep in the icy water to push the boat back into the sea while bailing it with their helmets.
“It was very, very cold,” Capt. Hubble deadpanned. “I would have bailed with my hands at that point.”
The soldiers then climbed a 20-metre headwall, changed into dry clothes and camped out overlooking Lancaster Sound. In the clear Arctic air, they could see Devon Island, 80 kilometres away across the passage.
“We like these experiences for the learning element, but we also like challenges,” Capt. Hubble said. “Pain is temporary, but stories are forever.”
That's why Cmdr. Paul Dempsey, captain of the Montreal, took his ship on high-speed manoeuvres in the middle of the sound.
The fleet Montreal effortlessly hit 28 knots, then heeled over in turns so tight that crew members were warned they might roll out of their bunks if they were trying to sleep. The ship stopped dead in a couple of hundred metres, then went faster in reverse than many water-skiing boats.
“It's the sports car of the navy,” said Cmdr. Dempsey, clearly proud.
With all its planned exercises so far completed with smooth co-ordination between the various services involved, Col. Whitecross is calling Operation Lancaster a success.
But its impact on the Forces might be better summed up by one of Montreal's seamen, who stood having a smoke on the ship's port deck watching the passing show of glaciated, rugged coastline and the slow promenade of icebergs.
“Gorgeous,” he said in a thick Newfoundland accent. “Makes you feel all Canadian.”
