Natives want seat at Arctic summit

Canada's plan to host a five-nation Arctic summit next month is drawing fire from northern aboriginal leaders who say they are being left out of discussions about the future of their lands and people.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon announced this month that he has invited his counterparts from the four other Arctic Ocean coastal states -- Russia, the United States, Norway and Denmark -- to a March 29 meeting in Chelsea, Que.

The Arctic gathering, scheduled just ahead of a G8 foreign ministers' meeting in Ottawa, is aimed at encouraging "new thinking on economic development and environmental protection," Mr. Cannon said.

But the Inuit Circumpolar Council -- which represents Inuit from Canada, Greenland, Alaska and Russia -- and the Yukon-based Arctic Athabaskan Council (AAC) have objected to the summit's exclusive guest list, arguing their leaders should have a seat at the table.

"We don't see Northern Canada, particularly Arctic indigenous peoples, attending and contributing," the AAC's international chairman Bill Erasmus said in statement.

Mr. Erasmus and other critics are pointing to the Arctic Council -- which includes eight northern nations (including Finland, Sweden and Iceland) and various aboriginal representatives -- as a more inclusive model for talks about the changing climate and emerging economic opportunities in the polar realm.

"It is important to maintain the integrity and status of the Arctic Council as the key 'high-level forum' in the circumpolar world," Mr. Erasmus said.

Noting that Mr. Cannon has billed the March 29 summit as a chance to "reinforce ongoing collaboration in the region, including in the Arctic Council," Mr. Erasmus added: "We invite the minister to tell us how this will be achieved when we are not even in the room."

One of Canada's top Inuit leaders -- Inuit Circumpolar Council-Canada president Duane Smith -- has also issued a statement urging Mr. Cannon to open the summit to aboriginal delegates.

The Inuit need direct representation at the meeting, Mr. Smith contends, "because Inuit are a coastal people, because this summit is about the Arctic Ocean coast, and because Mr. Cannon underlined the importance of our involvement in multilateral meetings outside the Arctic Council."