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<\/p>\nInuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed warns that\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s recent rhetoric about his country\u2019s need to control Greenland will soon be directed at Canada\u2019s North.<\/p>\n
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Speaking at an Arctic security<\/a> symposium at the University of Ottawa on Wednesday, Obed suggested that Trump\u2019s arguments \u2014 for instance, that Denmark and Greenland can\u2019t defend the Arctic nation from Russian or Chinese incursion \u2014 could be deployed to push for greater American control of Canada\u2019s northern territories.<\/p>\n \u201cThe argument often starts with the colonial power (not having) done enough to improve the land, basically to improve the state of conditions within the space. And so therefore they don\u2019t actually have territorial authority over it,\u201d Obed said.<\/p>\n \u201cNo other nation states can come to us and tell us what we should have done, or what we have to do to maintain sovereignty over our homeland. We do that ourselves, and we\u2019ve articulated that again and again over the past 200 years.\u201d<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n Obed\u2019s comments were on one level directed at Trump\u2019s obsessive desire, only recently abandoned, that America be given \u201cownership\u201d over Greenland.<\/p>\n The U.S. president backed down from his increasingly militaristic language around Greenland\u2019s annexation after a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte last week, but not before the episode shook the transatlantic defence alliance and European capitals.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore on Canada But Obed\u2019s speech was also directed at Prime Minister Mark Carney and the federal government and its relationship to First Nations, M\u00e9tis and Inuit leadership. Obed noted with approval Carney\u2019s recent speech in Davos, Switzerland, where the prime minister urged \u201cmiddle powers\u201d to work together in the face of the world\u2019s superpowers \u2014 most immediately the United States.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n Carney\u2019s speech, which was widely praised by both international and domestic commentators, depicted a world where the \u201crules-based international order\u201d has been exposed as a fiction and where powerful nations seek to impose their will on smaller ones.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t help but think of some of the terms that were used and the application of those terms in our context. Large main powers only applying the rules when it is convenient, and excusing themselves when it is not,\u201d Obed said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I thought about the juxtaposition with Indigenous people\u2019s rights in this country and the large main power of governments excusing themselves when convenient, when they do not want to implement our existing rights or not implement legislation that would benefit our lives and create equity.\u201d<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n The Carney government \u2014 as well as Canada\u2019s national security and defence communities \u2014 have put a greater emphasis recently on the need for Ottawa to project sovereignty over Canada\u2019s vast northern region, and to secure the territory from threats.<\/p>\n Anita Anand, Canada\u2019s foreign affairs minister who previously served in the defence portfolio under the previous Liberal government, told the symposium that \u201cdefending Canada\u2019s Arctic sovereignty is an unquestionable national security priority of this government.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it is not a secondary concern. It is not a regional issue, but central to how we protect Canada in our front yard and how we contribute to global security,\u201d Anand said Wednesday.<\/p>\n \n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n
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