{"id":1774,"date":"2019-05-08T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T13:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/?p=1774"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:58:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:58:42","slug":"inuit-and-canada-share-northwest-passage-sovereignty-icc-canada-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/press-releases\/inuit-and-canada-share-northwest-passage-sovereignty-icc-canada-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Inuit and Canada Share Northwest Passage Sovereignty \u2013 ICC Canada President"},"content":{"rendered":"May 8, 2019 \u2013 Ottawa, Canada - Inuit have reaffirmed Canada\u2019s sovereignty over the Northwest Passage after comments this week by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Canada\u2019s claim over the passage was \u201cillegitimate.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Northwest Passage is part of Inuit Nunangat, our Arctic homeland,\u201d says Monica Ell-Kanayuk, President of ICC Canada. She attended this week\u2019s Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Finland where Pompeo spoke.\n\n\u201cMr. Pompeo\u2019s characterization of the Arctic as a place of geopolitical and military competition is faulty,\u201d said Ell-Kanayuk. \u201cGeopolitical differences in the Arctic have always been resolved peacefully. Indigenous peoples living in the Arctic are integral to its international institutions and decision-making that has achieved this\u201d.\n\n\u201cCanadian sovereignty is based on Inuit-Crown land claims agreements as well as more than four millennia of Inuit land use and occupancy throughout the region,\u201d said ICC Canada President Monica Ell-Kanayuk. \u201cCanada\u2019s sovereignty is based on treaties and constructive agreements which recognize both Inuit sovereignty and Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic, including the Northwest Passage.\u201d\n\nEll-Kanayuk pointed to ICC\u2019s 2009 Circumpolar Inuit Declaration on Sovereignty in the Arctic which states that, besides an inherent right to self-determination, Inuit have gained rights through international law, land claims and self-government processes.\n\nShe said the declaration talks about the development of international institutions in the Arctic and Indigenous Peoples Organizations. These new forms of governance \u201cmust transcend Arctic states\u2019 agendas on sovereignty and sovereign rights and the traditional monopoly claimed by states in the area of foreign affairs.\u201d\n\nPrevious Canadian governments have recognized the role Inuit have played in securing Canadian sovereignty, said Ell-Kanayuk, citing a 1985 statement by former Foreign Affairs Minister Joe Clark.\n\nThe ICC President said Clark was clear:\n\n\"Canada\u2019s sovereignty in the Arctic is indivisible. It embraces land, sea and ice. It extends without interruption to the seaward facing coasts of the Arctic islands. These islands are joined, and not divided, by the waters between them. They are bridged for most of the year by ice. From time immemorial Canada\u2019s Inuit people have used and occupied the ice as they have used and occupied the land.\"\n\nFurthermore, based on Inuit land use and occupancy as well as Inuit-Crown land claim agreements, some Inuit rights holders are now working in partnership with the federal government to develop and implement marine co-management plans encompassing more than 157,000 square kilometers of the Northwest Passage. This is the reason why Inuit will remain centrally involved in the development of environmental, security, transport and economic development initiatives within the Canadian Arctic.\n\n\u201cInuit are currently working with Canada on the development of an Arctic Policy Framework, which will articulate a regime for co-managing the Northwest Passage,\u201d Ell-Kanayuk said. \u201cThis will include coordinated action to ensure sustainability, safety and security, as well as healthy communities across the Canadian Arctic.\u201d\n\nThe Inuit vision for Inuit Nunangat includes cooperation with international partners,\u201d she said. \u201cSuch cooperation is based on an Inuit driven approach to development, which is founded on shared Inuit- Canadian sovereignty.\u201d\n\nIn his speech, Pompeo restated the long-held American position that the Northwest Passage is international waters, open to shipping of all nations. Canada\u2019s position is that the passage is an internal waterway and any country that wants to pass through needs permission.\n\nICC Canada President Ell-Kanayuk said US seafaring ambitions through the Northwest Passage violate articles in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, such as Article 26 which states that, \u201cIndigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.\u201d\n\n-30-\n\nContact: <\/strong>\n\nNatasha Latreille\nICC (Canada)\n+1 613 791-3122\nNLatreille@inuitcircumpolar.com <\/a>\n\nThe Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) is an Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Organization (IPO), founded in 1977 to promote and celebrate the unity of 160,000 Inuit from Alaska (USA), Canada, Greenland, and Chukotka (Russia). ICC works to promote Inuit rights, safeguard the Arctic environment, and protect and promote the Inuit way of life. In regard to climate change, we believe that it is crucial for world leaders and governments to recognize, respect and fully implement the human rights of Inuit and all other Indigenous peoples across the globe.<\/em>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inuit have reaffirmed Canada\u2019s sovereignty over the Northwest Passage after comments this week by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Canada\u2019s claim over the passage was \u201cillegitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-42","category-press-releases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987515406,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions\/987515406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}