Canada's Arctic sector claim in historical perspective: a response to Alan MacEachern
ABSTRACT Explorer Joseph Elzéar Bernier's famous 1909 sector claim on Melville Island is often described as a key moment in the evolution of Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago. Writers such as Yolande Dorion-Robitaille and Marjolaine Saint-Pierre have argued that Bernier was...
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2016
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247416000760 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247416000760 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0032247416000760 2024-03-03T08:40:13+00:00 Canada's Arctic sector claim in historical perspective: a response to Alan MacEachern Cavell, Janice 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247416000760 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247416000760 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Polar Record volume 53, issue 2, page 186-191 ISSN 0032-2474 1475-3057 General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development journal-article 2016 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0032247416000760 2024-02-08T08:31:51Z ABSTRACT Explorer Joseph Elzéar Bernier's famous 1909 sector claim on Melville Island is often described as a key moment in the evolution of Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago. Writers such as Yolande Dorion-Robitaille and Marjolaine Saint-Pierre have argued that Bernier was unfairly deprived of the credit he deserved for his sovereignty contributions. Alan MacEachern has recently stated in Polar Record that civil servants in the 1920s were to blame for this supposed unfair treatment. In particular, he sees Oswald Finnie of the Department of the Interior as a man who was determined at all costs to rewrite the historical record. This article contests MacEachern's depiction of Finnie and his colleagues, based on a range of primary source documents. It also emphasises the little-known but very significant role played by James White, who first placed the sector lines on an official map five years before Bernier's 1909 proclamation. The article thus clarifies the complicated relationship between White's 1904 map, Bernier's 1909 claim, an earlier sector claim made by Bernier in 1907, and the views on the sector theory held by influential members of the Canadian civil service at the time when an official sector claim was made by Ottawa in 1925. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Archipelago Arctic Polar Record Melville Island Cambridge University Press Arctic Polar Record 53 2 186 191 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development |
spellingShingle |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development Cavell, Janice Canada's Arctic sector claim in historical perspective: a response to Alan MacEachern |
topic_facet |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development |
description |
ABSTRACT Explorer Joseph Elzéar Bernier's famous 1909 sector claim on Melville Island is often described as a key moment in the evolution of Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago. Writers such as Yolande Dorion-Robitaille and Marjolaine Saint-Pierre have argued that Bernier was unfairly deprived of the credit he deserved for his sovereignty contributions. Alan MacEachern has recently stated in Polar Record that civil servants in the 1920s were to blame for this supposed unfair treatment. In particular, he sees Oswald Finnie of the Department of the Interior as a man who was determined at all costs to rewrite the historical record. This article contests MacEachern's depiction of Finnie and his colleagues, based on a range of primary source documents. It also emphasises the little-known but very significant role played by James White, who first placed the sector lines on an official map five years before Bernier's 1909 proclamation. The article thus clarifies the complicated relationship between White's 1904 map, Bernier's 1909 claim, an earlier sector claim made by Bernier in 1907, and the views on the sector theory held by influential members of the Canadian civil service at the time when an official sector claim was made by Ottawa in 1925. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cavell, Janice |
author_facet |
Cavell, Janice |
author_sort |
Cavell, Janice |
title |
Canada's Arctic sector claim in historical perspective: a response to Alan MacEachern |
title_short |
Canada's Arctic sector claim in historical perspective: a response to Alan MacEachern |
title_full |
Canada's Arctic sector claim in historical perspective: a response to Alan MacEachern |
title_fullStr |
Canada's Arctic sector claim in historical perspective: a response to Alan MacEachern |
title_full_unstemmed |
Canada's Arctic sector claim in historical perspective: a response to Alan MacEachern |
title_sort |
canada's arctic sector claim in historical perspective: a response to alan maceachern |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247416000760 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247416000760 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Polar Record Melville Island |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Polar Record Melville Island |
op_source |
Polar Record volume 53, issue 2, page 186-191 ISSN 0032-2474 1475-3057 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0032247416000760 |
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Polar Record |
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53 |
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2 |
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186 |
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191 |
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