According to the Globe and Mail of May 7, 2025, during the meeting between Trump and Carney, the American president expressed great interest in the Arctic. We saw it with Greenland and the Panama canal, Donald Trump wants to control the sailors and, with the melting of the ice, the northwest passage is in its sights. His marotte to want to annex Canada undoubtedly has the primary purpose of extending American sovereignty over the Arctic.
Already, during his first mandate, the American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had revived, in a speech before the Arctic Council, the debate on Canadian sovereignty on the Arctic.
This debate is not new. Already, it was significant when Queen Victoria affixed her signature to the bottom of the British North America Act (BNA Act) coincided with the signing of the Alaska purchasing treaty to Russia by the United States. In 1869, the United States also thought of buying Greenland and Iceland in order to get their hands on the Arctic Land claimed by Canada.
The government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1896-1911) was the first to want to ensure the sovereignty of Canada on the Arctic. At the time, Senator Pascal Poirier proposed the adoption of sector theory. According to this theory, for any country with a shore on the Arctic Ocean, we draw from the most western point of the coast and the most eastern point of it, two lines going towards the North Pole and all that is in this point of pie falling under its jurisdiction. Laurier officially pushed the idea, but, at the time, on several Canadian Arctic cards, the borders appear defined according to the principle of the sector.
The United States then reject this theory-there is no island north of Alaska-and they consider the Arctic High as a the land of nothat is to say that does not belong to any country, which Pompeo had reaffirmed. On the other hand, Russia, as well as Norway, adopted sector theory.
Secret meeting between Parizeau and an American general
The government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau also flirted with sector theory when he wanted to assert Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic. It is here that a particularly significant event revealed in a biography of Jacques Parizeau published in 1992 by Laurence Richard (Jacques Parizeau, the builderÉditions de l’Homme, 1992). We cite a large extract.
Start of the extract
One day in 1971, Jacques Parizeau received a phone call from a friend installed in the United States.
“Could you take the plane for Chicago this afternoon?, Asks him that friend.
I have something else to do. Why do you want me to do this?, Answers Parizeau.
I assure you that it is very important. I wouldn’t make you make this trip for nothing. I can’t give you details. Believe me. It is important that you go there. »»
Jacques Parizeau therefore takes the plane for Chicago. At the exit of the airport, a driver, having identified him by means of a photo, leads him to the exit: “The car awaits you. »»
-The car starts and spins at full speed, crossing the whole city of Chicago, and continuing its race to Racine, a medium -sized city located on the banks of Lake Michigan, in Wisconsin. She finally engages in the entry of a huge property, which, Parizeau will learn it later, belongs to the owners of the company Johnson and Johnson, and which we use for seminars and meetings.
Once inside the superb manor, Parizeau is greeted by a character who simply tells him: “The general awaits you. »»
He enters a room where around forty people are already installed, among other things, the Canadian Embassy of Washington, the US Department, the Pentagon and the US military and the Ottawa external affairs ministry.
The general in question is attached to the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency, military equivalent of the CIA). Everyone is installed for dinner, and we install the Quebec host in front of the general. After the meal, we move on to serious things. And Jacques Parizeau is obviously the one who will address the questions of “great interest”. The first goes straight to the point: “What do you think of the theory of the sectors?” »»
Fortunately, a few months earlier, Jacques-Yvan Morin made a presentation to his colleague on questions of this nature. According to the theory of the sectors, for any country with a shore on the Arctic Ocean, we draw from the most western point of the coast and the most eastern point of it, two lines going towards the North Pole and all that is in this point of pie falls under its jurisdiction. Canada, the USSR and Norway agree with this theory. On the other hand, the United States, which has Alaska, are in favor of the freedom to circulate. But for this sectors theory to find a practical application, it is essential that all resident countries agree. As long as there are recalcitrants, it cannot work.
The following question was predictable: “If Quebec becomes sovereign, will it be for sectors theory? »»
The question of the theory of sectors is all the more important for Americans since, in this point of pie which would be defined from the western point and the most eastern point of Côte du Québec on the Arctic regions, is most of Baffin’s land on which we find at that time the second largest air base in the United States after Thule, Greenland. “These brave Americans,” said Parizeau, “wondered what would happen to their base. »»
At that time, Parizeau understood that the rise of sovereignism in Quebec began to be taken seriously. As for Canadians, they were furious with this whole staging, precisely because it constituted recognition of the idea of sovereignty. “The Canadians were very unhappy that the Americans invited me to chat with them. »»
Jacques Parizeau and his hosts explored that evening many important aspects of Quebec’s accession to sovereignty.
For example, it was a question of Quebec’s participation in Norad and NATO: “Me, he said, I always thought that it was okay that a sovereign Quebec is part of Norad and NATO. We cannot, on the other hand, request the US defense umbrella, and on the other hand to declare itself neutral. »»
End of the extract
Obviously, the United States has shown the Trudeau government that it was ready, to counter Canadian claims on the Arctic, to support the idea of independence from Quebec, if its promoters did not recognize sector theory.
Are there still independence today who are interested in this question, which becomes a burning news again?
