From cbc.ca:
Arctic indigenous groups are criticizing Canada's decision to leave
them out of an upcoming meeting of Arctic nations in Quebec next month.
Federal Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon recently announced
that he will host a meeting of foreign ministers from the Arctic Ocean
coastal countries of Norway, Russia, Denmark (which includes Greenland)
and the United States on March 29 in Chelsea, Que.
The Arctic leaders will discuss ways to pursue responsible economic development in the North, Cannon said in a release.
"I think it's vitally important that Arctic indigenous voices are
heard at this meeting [and] that our participation is taken into
consideration," Cindy Dickson, executive director of the Arctic
Athabaskan Council, told CBC News.
The five coastal nations border on the Arctic Ocean, and leaders
from each country are trying to extend their sovereign claims over a
larger area of the Arctic seabed, under the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea.
Discussions about Arctic issues are usually held at the Arctic
Council, which has representatives from governments and northern
indigenous groups.
But officials from the five countries have started meeting
independently of the Arctic Council, first in Ilulissat, Greenland, in
2008, and now in Quebec next month.
"It's our concern that we see some of the states involved in the
Arctic Council now … move the discussions out of the Arctic Council and
to create kind of separate bodies," said Gunn Britt Retter of the Saami
Council in Norway.
In announcing the upcoming meeting, Cannon said it will reinforce
"ongoing collaboration in the region, including in the Arctic Council."
But Dickson said she is especially displeased that indigenous groups
are not being invited to a meeting where northern economic development
will be discussed.
Both the Arctic Athabaskan Council and the Inuit Circumpolar Council
plan to lobby the federal government to include them in next month's
summit.
Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada president Duane Smith told CBC News
that his organization has contacted various government officials, and
plans to correspond with Cannon shortly.
The Arctic meeting will take place right before Cannon hosts the G8
foreign ministers' meeting in Gatineau, Que., on March 29 and 30.