Pond Inlet (Aug 21/06) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a speech in Iqaluit just over a week ago, saying Canadians must defend sovereignty in the North.

Brian Simonee of Pond Inlet uses plainer language.

"It's too easy for anyone to come in and do anything they want," Simonee said as he leaned against the steel rail of the Canadian Forces frigate Montreal just offshore of Pond Inlet. "We haven't had a military presence here since I was growing up."

Simonee is a Canadian Ranger. He and his Ranger partner Abraham Kublu were on board the Montreal, waiting to be taken to one of three observation points set up on Lancaster Sound as part of a larger exercise involving almost 500 Canadian Armed Forces, Rangers, Coast Guard and RCMP.

Called Operation Lancaster, it's a another step in the growing Canadian military effort to police and monitor the North and its waters for foreign traffic.

On Aug. 14, the Pond Inlet school was taken over by uniforms setting up an operations centre.

There, preparations were made for the arrival of the Montreal and two smaller Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels, the Moncton and Goose Bay.

At the airport, Twin Otters from the 440 Squadron in Yellowknife, a Griffon helicopter and charters landed and took off again.

"It's about time they got here," said Malachi Arreak, Pond Inlet's chief administrator. "Sovereignty has been a part of my family for generations. My grandfather and father were special constables. Our bones are spread all over this area."

Arreak mentions his family's RCMP connection because in bygone years, the force was at the forefront of patrolling and leaving an official government footprint on the land to add to Inuit footsteps over the centuries.

One of the plans for Operation Lancaster is to inspect, and repair if needed, the graves of two RCMP officers who died while posted on Devon Island in 1926-27.

Two officers on the Montreal - Sgt. Mike Toohey, now stationed in Iqaluit after previous Nunavut postings and Const. David Lawson who was born in Pangnirtung, will be doing the honours at the site.

Pond Inlet Mayor David Qamaniq welcomes the new emphasis on sovereignty.

"It's a long time coming," said Qamaniq. "We're living right next to the Northwest Passage. But we need to expand the role of the Rangers."

Rangers get training approximately 20 days of the year, usually in the spring.

There are sometimes special operations but Qamaniq suggests training should be done in all seasons.

Settlement Manager Arreak wants to go even further. "We want our Rangers trained to be pilots, military specialists, search and rescue technicians, anything to create jobs."

Ranger Simonee, still waiting on the deck of the Montreal, applauds the search and rescue idea.

"We want search and rescue training," said Simonee. "Useful in Pond Inlet, very useful.”

Prime Minister Harper had mentioned a revitalized role for the Canadian Rangers in his Iqaluit speech.

Lieutenant-Colonel Kevin Tyler, a 27-year career soldier and second in command of Joint Task Force North in Yellowknife, was on the Montreal as Rangers Kublu and Simonee and 28 members of Quebec's Royal 22nd Infantry Regiment boarded a Zodiac for an outpost on the east side of Navy Board Strait.

He likes the course of the new government and is convinced momentum is building for the Canadian military to have a much greater presence in the North.

He said that over the three days individual members of the Royal 22nd infantry are on the windswept rock on the shore by Lancaster Sound, they will "learn about Northern conditions and working with the Rangers" and will use that knowledge throughout their careers, passing it on to others.

The infantry soldiers gathering their gear in the helicopter hangar of the HMCS Montreal for the transport to shore were clearly pumped up, anxious to get out on the land. Ranger Kublu was more calm. While going on a training mission with the Royal 22nd was "exciting," and he took the job of observing the surrounding waters seriously, being a hunter, he would be using his free time and army issue rifle to keep an eye out for Narwhal.

"The .303 (rifle) is good for hunting," said Kublu. "Not so good for a paper target."