Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T20:02:26.442Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘As far as 90 north’: Joseph Elzéar Bernier's 1907 and 1909 sovereignty claims

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2010

Janice Cavell
Janice Cavell*
Affiliation:
Historical Section (PORH), Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2, and Department of History, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Joseph Elzéar Bernier's well known sector claim of 1 July 1909 was predated by a similar, but until now unknown, proclamation in 1907. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, although eager to assert Canadian sovereignty, was unwilling to countenance the first claim because he did not think that the right time for such a gesture had yet come. However, in 1909 Bernier's action was welcomed, but only as a convenient way to counter the widely publicised American claim made by Robert Peary. In the eyes of government officials, neither of Bernier's proclamations held any real importance for Canada's northern sovereignty which rested primarily on the 1880 transfer of ownership from Britain. Bernier believed that his achievements had never been sufficiently recognised, but in fact the problem was that he himself overrated their significance.

Type
Notes
Information
Polar Record , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , October 2010 , pp. 372 - 373
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bernier, J.E. 1903. Letter to R. Préfontaine, 13 February 1903. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada RG 42 vol 52, file 14981.Google Scholar
Bernier, J.E. 1906. Letter to F. Gourdeau, 20 July 1906. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada RG 42 vol 142, file 27330.Google Scholar
Bernier, J.E. 1907. Report to minister of marine and fisheries, 3 October 1907. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada RG 42 vol 142, file 27330.Google Scholar
Bernier, J.E. 1909a. Report on the dominion government expedition to the Arctic islands and Hudson Strait on board the C.G.S. ‘Arctic,’ 1906–1907. Ottawa: C.H. Parmalee.Google Scholar
Bernier, J.E. 1909b. Canadian rights in the Arctic. In: Addresses delivered before the Canadian Club of Ottawa (1909). Ottawa: Mortimer Press: 190–92.Google Scholar
Bernier, J.E. 1910. Report on the Dominion of Canada government expedition to the Arctic Islands and Hudson Strait on board the D.G.S. ‘Arctic’. Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau.Google Scholar
Cavell, J., and Noakes, J.. in press. Acts of occupation: Canada and Arctic sovereignty, 1918–1925. Vancouver: UBC Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, B. 1927. He has added half a million square miles to Canada. Canadian Magazine 67 (2): 20–21, 30.Google Scholar
Dorion-Robitaille, Y. 1978. Captain J.E. Bernier's contribution to Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. Ottawa: Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.Google Scholar
Gourdeau, F. 1906a. Instructions to J.E. Bernier, 23 June 1906. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada RG 42 vol 142, file 27330.Google Scholar
Gourdeau, F. 1906b. Instructions to J.E. Bernier, 20 July 1906. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada RG 18 vol 323, file 1906-744.Google Scholar
Laurier, W. 1903. Letter to W.C. Edwards, 29 October 1903. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada MG 26G vol 288 (Sir Wilfrid Laurier papers).Google Scholar
Osborn, S.L. 2003. Closing the front door of the Arctic: Capt. Joseph E. Bernier's role in Canadian Arctic sovereignty. Ottawa: Carleton University, unpublished MJ thesis.Google Scholar
Peary, R.E. 1910. The north pole. New York: Frederick A. Stokes.Google Scholar
Saint-Pierre, M. 2009. Joseph-Elzéar Bernier: champion of Canadian Arctic sovereignty, 1852–1934 (translator Barr, W.). Montréal: Baraka Books.Google Scholar
Skelton, O.D. 1933. Letter to A.F. Lascelles, 23 November 1933. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada RG 25 vol 1673, file 748-33.Google Scholar
Smart, J. 1903. Letter to W.S. Fielding, 24 April 1903. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada RG 12 vol 48, file 1654-34.Google Scholar