The attached short letter from Robert Amsterdam was published in the Globe and Mail on August 4.
Polar Bear Warning ROBERT AMSTERDAM Amsterdam & Peroff LLP August 4, 2007 Toronto — In response to your editorial (Pushing Ahead On The Arctic Seabed, Aug. 3), I would urge your readers not to take Russia’s claim so lightly. As a lawyer who has been involved in both Russia and Canada throughout my entire career, I can assure you that the comic symbolism of the flag-planting stunt is more than just theatre. The hostile belligerence of this mission, much ballyhooed in Russia, presents a direct threat to the legal status quo governing High Arctic territorial claims. Given that the region contains more than a quarter of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas deposits, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay’s quips are far from a sufficient response, and could even be seen as hypocritical, given how Canada planted its own flag on Hans Island in 2005.