The Arctic Waters and the Northwest Passage: A Final Revisit

Climate change has reduced the extent and thickness of sea ice in the Arctic, making international shipping in the Northwest Passage a virtual certainty in the foreseeable future. Such future shipping raises the question of whether the Passage is or might become an international strait, with the consequent right of transit passage. This article examines the two possible legal bases for Canada's claim that the waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are internal waters: a historic title and straight baselines. It also addresses the issue of the possible internationalization of the Passage, if Canada does not take preventive measures. Some such measures are recommended in the last part of the article.     

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on Maritime Delimitation: The Bangladesh v. Myanmar Case

This article uses the Northwest Passage as a case for study of one issue relating to the regime of international straits: whether a strait formed geographically and functionally by means of artificial aids for navigation may be regarded as an artificial waterway to which the regime of international straits does not apply. The article suggests that the Northwest Passage could be subject to a bilateral treaty regime between Canada and the United States, largely akin to that which applies to artificial waterways such as the Panama Canal. This solution would guarantee both Canadian sovereignty over the Passage and the interests of international shipping in having a route open and secure.     

The Salish Sea Boundary Straits: “Historic Internal Waters” or Territorial Seas?

The legal classification of the boundary straits of the Salish Sea between the western United States and Canada as either historic internal waters or territorial seas, subject to a right of innocent or transit passage, has been the subject of periodic debate within the U.S. government since the United States and Great Britain entered into the 1846 Oregon Treaty. As neither state has made an express public claim of historic title to the waters, any evidence for such a claim must be sought in less explicit and sometimes conflicting sources. This article applies the United States' legal test for a historic waters claim, recently set out in the U.S. Department of State's analysis of China's claims in the South China Sea, and concludes that the boundary waters of the Salish Sea would not meet that test. Accordingly, the waters of the Salish Sea boundary straits on the United States' side of the international boundary must be considered a territorial sea.     

Canadian perspectives on seabed mining: The case of the production limitation formula

Abstract

This paper will analyze the position Canada took on seabed mining in the Third United Nations Law of the Sea Conference (UNCLOS III). Canada is a major land‐based producer of nickel, an industrialized country with private interests in seabed mining, a NATO member, a major ally of the United States, and a country with extensive ties to less‐developed countries. At UNCLOS III Canada was concerned primarily about the management and control of its coastal resources and the protection of the marine environment. After having secured these interests, Canada emerged as the leader of the land‐based mineral‐producer group advocating production controls on seabed mining. The production limitation formula was one of the major reasons for the United States’ decision not to sign the Law of the Sea Treaty. In so forcefully advocating a production limitation formula, the Canadian delegation relinquished Canada's potential as a middle power to bridge the gap between the Group of 77 and the Western industrialized countries in order to formulate a widely acceptable regime to govern the seabed. A production limitation formula was not in Canada's best interests, given her potential role in seabed mining, and was rejected by officials in the Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources, as well as the Canadian private sector.     

United States interests in the Arctic region

Abstract

The Arctic is a vast, forbidding and relatively unknown region. It covers about 14 million square kilometers of which 5.2 square kilometers is ice covered in summer and 11.7 million square kilometers in winter. It is a highly strategic region, and is the shortest distance between the two superpowers. It also contains vast resources, including oil, gas, and coal. Over 830,000 native peoples inhabit the Arctic Rim and have a culture that goes back 4500 years. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is generally applicable to the Arctic Ocean and has a special provision for ice‐covered areas. However, there are several unresolved jurisdictional and navigational problems between the United States and other Arctic Rim States concerning the Arctic's waters, including the Chukchi Sea, the Beaufort Sea and the Northwest Passage. Although the United States has paid some attention to the Arctic region in recent years, the Arctic still remains a relatively low priority interest for national policy and operational programs.     

Canada's Neglected Tropical Disease Research Network: Who's in the Core—Who's on the Periphery?

Background

This study designed and applied accessible yet systematic methods to generate baseline information about the patterns and structure of Canada''s neglected tropical disease (NTD) research network; a network that, until recently, was formed and functioned on the periphery of strategic Canadian research funding.

Methodology

Multiple methods were used to conduct this study, including: (1) a systematic bibliometric procedure to capture archival NTD publications and co-authorship data; (2) a country-level “core-periphery” network analysis to measure and map the structure of Canada''s NTD co-authorship network including its size, density, cliques, and centralization; and (3) a statistical analysis to test the correlation between the position of countries in Canada''s NTD network (“k-core measure”) and the quantity and quality of research produced.

Principal Findings

Over the past sixty years (1950–2010), Canadian researchers have contributed to 1,079 NTD publications, specializing in Leishmania, African sleeping sickness, and leprosy. Of this work, 70% of all first authors and co-authors (n = 4,145) have been Canadian. Since the 1990s, however, a network of international co-authorship activity has been emerging, with representation of researchers from 62 different countries; largely researchers from OECD countries (e.g. United States and United Kingdom) and some non-OECD countries (e.g. Brazil and Iran). Canada has a core-periphery NTD international research structure, with a densely connected group of OECD countries and some African nations, such as Uganda and Kenya. Sitting predominantly on the periphery of this research network is a cluster of 16 non-OECD nations that fall within the lowest GDP percentile of the network.

Conclusion/Significance

The publication specialties, composition, and position of NTD researchers within Canada''s NTD country network provide evidence that while Canadian researchers currently remain the overall gatekeepers of the NTD research they generate; there is opportunity to leverage existing research collaborations and help advance regions and NTD areas that are currently under-developed.     

An American's view of Canadian medical education.

Undergraduate medical education in Canada and the United States is remarkably similar, except for the fact that Canadian medical schools are supported by their provincial governments. However, the systems diverge sharply at the postgraduate level. In Canada, the number and specialty mix of residents are negotiated by medical schools in response to educational and social needs; in the United States, these factors are largely determined by hospital service needs. The Canadian systems of accreditation, certification and payment for medical education after graduation are much simpler than those of the United States, and the accreditation and certification systems are more objective. In addition, the US system promotes subspecialization and a costly specialty imbalance, whereas Canada''s system has achieved an appropriate balance of specialists and generalists. In general, Canadian medical education appears to be simpler, more accountable and more socially responsive.     

The Legal Status of the Russian Baselines in the Arctic

The validity under international law of the straight baselines the Soviet Union established in the Arctic and that Russia maintains are examined. For the purpose of comparison with the Russian regime, the issues surrounding the international regimes of baselines are analyzed. The results are then compared, as well as the practice of the main opponent with navigational interests in the area, the United States. It is found that while many of the enclosures fail the traditional criteria for establishing straight baselines and basepoints as well as the traditional criteria for enclosing bays, due to the moderate degree of deviation, largely unopposed by other states, the Russian practice cannot be said to be inconsistent with international law. At the same time, although the waters enclosed can be claimed as internal waters under the Anglo-Norwegian Fisheries Case , Article 5(1) of the 1958 Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone (TSC), and Article 8(1) of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 Convention), they are still subject to TSC Article 5(2) and 1982 Convention Article 8(2). If the waters enclosed thus could not previously have been considered as internal waters, the right of innocent passage exists.     

Templates and exclusions: victim centrism in Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian residential schools

In this article I use an ethnographic approach to consider the causes and consequences of a focus on ‘survivor’ experience in Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on Indian residential schools. In this Truth Commission, the interconnected concepts of ‘survivor’, ‘cultural genocide’, ‘trauma’, and ‘healing’ became reference points for much of the testimony that was presented and the ways the schools were represented. Canada's Truth Commission thus offers an example of the consequences of ‘victim centrism’, including the ways that ‘truth‐telling’ can be influenced by the affirmation of particular survivor experiences and the wider goal of reforming the dominant historical narrative of the state through public education. Canada's TRC was limited by its mandate to a particular kind of institution and scope of collective harm. It was at the same time active in its creation of narrative templates, which guided the expression of traumatic personal experience and affirmed the category of residential school ‘survivor’ as the focal point for understanding policy‐driven loss of language, tradition, and political integrity.     

Streamlined approach for assessing embedded consumption of lithium and cobalt in the United States

In today's complex global supply chains, time and data intensive analyses are required to understand global flows of mineral commodities from mine to consumer, particularly for mineral commodities in products (electronics, automobiles, etc.) that contain multiple parts with many mineral commodities. National and regional analyses require additional time and data to incorporate international trade flows. However, data limitations and time constraints often prohibit global and national material flow analyses for minor metals. Here we present a methodological approach to circumvent these constraints by utilizing readily available industry-level global data from the United Nations Statistics Division and national industrial data to estimate total requirements for a mineral commodity. We apply this approach to lithium and cobalt use in the United States for the year 2018 and distinguish between apparent raw material consumption versus inferred embedded consumption of lithium and cobalt materials in all forms. The results show that more than half of the United States’ total requirements for both lithium and cobalt is in parts and products that were manufactured outside the United States. In large part, this is due to limited US manufacturing capability for lithium-ion battery materials and cells and the United States’ high import reliance for electronics that use those batteries.     

Tuition fees for residents: one physician's perspective

Although the education, expertise and guidance of Canada''s academic physicians cannot be overlooked, individual universities appear to see tuition fees for residents as an easy source of much needed revenue. If tuition should "rise to market levels," perhaps residents'' wages should similarly rise to reflect the amount of training received, skills required, responsibilities discharged and time expended. Unfortunately, tuition fees will be an area of contention for some time. Support of provincial resident associations and medical societies may lend both moral and, possibly, financial support to future members of the profession.     

美国生物医药产业竞争力分析与启示

进入生物经济时代以来,以生物医药产业为代表的生物技术产业正在引领人类新一波技术产业革命。我国针对生物医药产业作出的战略部署已经取得了明显成效,但与美国等生物医药强国相比仍有较大的竞争差距。采用波特钻石模型构建了生物医药产业国际竞争力理论分析框架,以美国为例分析其生物医药产业在要素状况、企业结构和竞争、需求条件、相关及支持性产业、政府和发展机会六个方面的竞争优势,并基于此提出了我国发展生物医药产业的政策建议,从而为我国生物医药产业发展提供政策参考。     

Municipal legislation for exploitation of the deep seabed

Abstract

This study traces the evolution of municipal legislation for the deep seabed in the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany, and considers what the United States seeks to gain and what it may possibly lose through its recent enactment of the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. The study concludes that the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral‐Resources Act will ensure for the United States that the minerals of the deep seabed are (if they can be) available when needed, and will strengthen the negotiating position of the United States in UNCLOS III vis‐à‐vis a proposed seabed regime which it perceives as inefficient toward the development of manganese nodules, and unacceptable in the system of governance it promotes. Passage of the Act, it is concluded, will probably not result in a breakdown of the Law of the Sea negotiations. It is thought it will give rise to a legal challenge, the outcome of which is difficult to predict. Finally, it is asserted that political/economic opposition to the Act will be mitigated by the reasonableness of the Act, its provision for delayed implementation, and the desire of many nations to conclude a successful Law of the Sea Treaty.     

The Position of the United States on the Northwest Passage: Is the Fear of Creating a Precedent Warranted?

For decades, Ottawa and Washington have been agreeing to disagree on the question of the legal status of the Northwest Passage. One argument which has been consistently raised on the U.S. side and which has precluded attempts to end the deadlock has been the fear of creating a negative precedent. This article assesses whether U.S. concerns are warranted: could coastal States elsewhere in the world rely on an eventual recognition of Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Passage to bolster their claims over a local strait?     

Ocean thermal energy: Potentials and pitfalls

Abstract

Thermal energy in vast reaches of the world's oceans lies waiting to be tapped by a fuel‐hungry world. The United States— the one heavily industrialized nation with “OTEC”; waters lapping its shores—is actively developing the technology; Japan and a European consortium are also pressing forward. The resource may be of practical value soon to favorably situated islands (e.g., Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba) and Third World countries. Meaningful contributions to mainland U.S. electricity needs are almost certainly a decade or more in the future, and conjectural. Environmental dangers loom if OTEC is too extensively and hurriedly deployed, and for the United States it is not a substitute for nuclear fission and fossil fuel in meeting immediate energy needs.     

The case in international law for Canada's extension of fisheries jurisdiction beyond 200 miles

In March 1995, Canadian fisheries authorities boarded and arrested the Spanish fishing vessel, Estai, outside the Canadian 200‐mile zone on the Grand Banks, an event that served to focus world attention on a dispute that had its origins in the failure of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to implement an effective conservation and management regime for fish stocks on the high seas, particularly with respect to fish stocks that straddle coastal states’ exclusive economic zones. This article examines the origins of the dispute, including the allegations relating to overfishing of North Atlantic Fisheries Organization‐recommended quotas, the background to the vessel's arrest, and the subsequent confrontation that occurred, both at diplomatic levels and on the high seas, between Canada and the European Union. An analysis is made of the case in international law for Canada's extension of jurisdiction beyond 200 miles pursuant to the provisions of Section 5 of the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act. Finally, the article examines the implications of the recently concluded Agreement on the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks for disputes of the kind that arose in the present case.     

Business leaders begin to rally in support of public health care system

There appears to be growing concern among Canada''s business leaders about the future of Canada''s health care system. At a recent meeting in Montebello, Que., that was cosponsored by the CMA and several Canadian corporations, some business representatives said Canada''s publicly funded system gives them a competitive edge in an increasingly global market.     

The United States of the United Races: a rejoinder

I respond to a review by C. Matthew Snipp, revisiting how my book connects abolitionist leanings to acceptance of racial mixing in the Early Republic. I reiterate that, contrary to the reviewer's claims, the book does not suggest that the defence of interracial marriage has been a thriving social movement. I correct his reading of my chapter on the Civil War era, referring to both the variety of voices present, and the claims of reformers' opponents, who were the only ones who claimed racial mixing was an aim of the abolitionist movement. Lastly, I defend The United States of the United Races against Professor Snipp's characterization of it as a work anticipating a ‘post-racial’ ideal, embodied by racially mixed people, who would be the end point of the obsolescence of race as a relevant analytic tool.     

Strategies of segregation: race,residence, and the struggle for educational equality

This article discusses the relationship between the socio-economic success of the Chinese in Canada, news discourse and the problematization of nearly 600 undocumented Fujianese migrants who arrived on Canada's western shores from July-September 1999. Our interests rest in examining the thematic patterns of the coverage, i.e. how the migrants' arrivals were 'problematized' and transformed into a discursive crisis centred on the constructs of 'risk' and, more precisely, 'risk avoidance'. It is our contention that news reporting on the migrants holds broader ideological resonances, extending beyond a unilateral concern about the perceived failure of the Canadian immigration and refugee systems. We argue that the reporting of these events serves as an index for collective insecurities stemming from social change, racial integration and contested Euro-Canadian hegemony.     

Arctic waters: Needs and options for CANADIAN‐AMERICAN cooperation

Abstract

Four major factors bid the United States and Canada to move toward more formalized arrangements for cooperative ocean management in the Arctic. Ocean currents in the Beaufort Sea region have the potential of transporting marine pollutants from one country to the other. Living resources, such as bowhead and beluga whales, undertake extensive transboundary migrations. Alaskan and Canadian Inuit depend heavily on renewable marine resources and raise the need for ocean management on an ecological basis. Cost savings could occur by coordinating development of offshore cold‐water technologies and shipping safety systems. This paper suggests six options for moving toward a more regionalized approach to the management of Arctic waters: a Beaufort Sea Boundary Agreement, a Beaufort Marine Cooperation Agreement, a Northwest Passage Agreement, an Equal Access Agreement, a Marine Mammal Cooperation Agreement, and an Arctic Regional Action Plan.