The launch of a new Canadian diplomatic mission in Greenland is sparking hopes for more collaboration on climate change, Inuit rights and defence in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's annexation threats.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is set to officially open the new consulate Friday in Greenland's capital Nuuk, where Canadian consular staff have been operating quietly for several weeks.
"This should have happened 300 years ago," said Aaju Peter, an Inuit lawyer and artist in Iqaluit who was born in Greenland.
"We can learn so much from exchanges and working together."
While Peter said the consulate could help Inuit in Canada learn a lot from Inuit in Greenland about improving their living standards, it also sends a signal of solidarity with a territory facing an unprecedented threat.
Trump has demanded U.S. control of Greenland and only recently backed down from threats to use force to acquire the Danish territory.
"It's put a lot of people in stress … It's a real threat," Peter said.
Greenland's government advised citizens last month to prepare enough supplies to survive for five days in the event of something like an invasion.
"We had some feverish days there," former Greenland politician Tillie Martinussen told The Canadian Press in a Thursday interview in Nuuk.
"Emergency generators in the town were completely sold out. Rifles were almost sold out. Most bullets were sold out."
Martinussen said her government was overwhelmed by the effort of managing diplomacy with Denmark and the U.S., while residents struggled to keep their children from worrying about their safety.
Peter said she heard that fear from her own relatives and friends. She organized a large demonstration in Iqaluit in support of Greenland on Jan. 17.
Trump's escalating rhetoric over the territory led to a series of high-level meetings in Europe and warnings that the NATO military alliance itself could collapse.
His threats dominated conversations at the World Economic Forum last month in Davos, Switzerland, where Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a widely praised speech urging middle powers to work together against great power hegemony.
Trump also has talked repeatedly of somehow making Canada a U.S. state. People in Nuuk have been spotted wearing clothing branded with the message "Greenland is not for sale" — similar to a ball cap made famous in Canada by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
Canada started planning for a consulate in Greenland before Trump's recent talk of annexation. Greenland's government promised to open a diplomatic office in Canada in February 2024; it likely will be located within the Danish embassy in Ottawa.
In December 2024, the Trudeau government promised to open consulates in Nuuk and Anchorage, Alaska — part of efforts to get the NATO military alliance to focus more on threats to the Arctic.
Canada's Arctic foreign policy says climate change is opening up new shipping routes just as the world seeks minerals and gas that could become more accessible.
Trump has falsely claimed that Greenland is swarming with Chinese and Russian vessels, despite analysts saying those countries have set their sites on areas north and west of Alaska.
Canada was set to formally launch its new consulate in Nuuk last November but bad weather cancelled the event.
Anand will be joined at the opening ceremony by Gov.-Gen. Mary Simon and Canada's Arctic Ambassador Virginia Mearns, both of whom are Inuk. Canada's ambassador to Denmark Carolyn Bennett, a former federal cabinet minister, will also attend.
They'll be joined by a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker, which Anand said is meant to signal Ottawa's support for Greenland's territorial integrity.
The Inuit organization Makivvik sent a plane filled with dozens of Inuit from northern Quebec and elsewhere in Canada to attend the opening and show solidarity with Greenlanders.
The consulate is being led by career diplomat Julie Croteau.
Peter said the consulate will allow Inuit in Canada to learn from Greenland's advanced education system and its extensive broadcast news sector, which kept her up to date on how Greenlanders were reacting to Trump's various statements.
"We could learn so much from the Greenlanders on how they keep their society informed," she said.
Peter said the Canadian Rangers — Canadian Armed Forces members who patrol the Arctic — could also collaborate with Greenlandic fishermen to serve as a first line of defence in the region.
"We are descended from the same ancestry. We were just colonized by two different nation states," she said, adding that Inuit in Canada and Greenland speak separate dialects of the same language.
In an interview last week, the leader of the national organization representing Inuit said Greenland has more doctors per capita than most of the Canadian Arctic.
Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, also noted that Greenland uses its Indigenous dialect as the primary language in its schools far more often than Inuktitut is used in Canadian classrooms.
"We look to Greenland and see more indicators of equity — especially social equity — and the hallmarks of sustainable communities in a way that we have yet to materialize completely here in Canada," Obed said.
"When Greenlanders look to us, we've heard a lot of our friends and relatives who appreciate just how strong we hold on to our cultural traditions, and how some of them have been unabated through colonization."
Denmark's Ambassador to Canada Nikolaj Harris said last week that Canada's new consulate could yield "concrete co-operation" between the two nations.
As an example, he said the Northwest Territories might learn from Greenland's experience with building hydroelectricity lines and homes in remote areas.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
