Oxbridge Canadian ConferenceJune 1st, 2013

Canada House, Trafalgar Square

Sponsorship

In addition to the participation by the Cambridge Canadian Club and Oxford CanSoc, this event was made possible by the financial support

of the following organizations:

The High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom

~

Fondation Baxter and Alma Ricard

Exploring the Post-secondary Aspirations of Aboriginal Students with Exceptionalities

Carly Beth Christensen (cc721@cam.ac.uk)Dept. of Education, University of Cambridge

Aboriginal special education is often discussed with respect to budget, which commonly leaves the cultural relevance of special education

practices unexplored. Special education programming strives to assist students in transitioning to adult life. However, views concerning

exceptionalities and a meaningful adult life are culturally based and highly individualized. This multiple case study examined the post-secondary

aspirations of three self-identified Aboriginal students with exceptionalities living in north-western Ontario. The students' contexts included: a student

who attended a First Nations community-controlled secondary school; a student who was funded to leave his First Nations community to attend a

provincial secondary school; and a student who attended a provincial secondary school in an urban community. Qualitative data was collected using semi-structured interviews with three individual students followed by interviews with the individual students' legal guardians, and special education teachers; as well as school documents, classroom discussions, relevant literature and the researcher's journal. This study used thematic

coding to examine what the students perceived would help or hinder them in reaching their post-secondary aspirations. Some of the initial findings include the themes of family relationships, exposure to careers, identity

construction, remoteness, addiction, connection to physical land, and balancing community obligations. Aboriginal perceptions of

exceptionality and adult status were conceptualised using the Seven Grandfather/Seven Sacred teachings. The data shows synergy with

Amartya Sen's capability approach, which stressed the importance of assessing equality based on the capability an individual has to pursue their version of the well being. Arjun Appadurai's explanation of aspirations as rooted in cultural norms and expectations was also applied to this study.

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Teaching Leadership Effectively to Professionals in Different Contexts

Name: Jaason Geerts (jmg201@cam.ac.uk)Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge

President, Cambridge University Leadership Development; President, Cambridge University Ice Hockey Club

The age-old question of whether leadership can be taught is nuanced by the reality that it manifestly is being taught in military academies, corporations, consultancies, and universities around the world.

Furthermore, the amount of time and money being invested into leadership education and development is increasing every year and expanding to

previously unexplored domains, such as medicine. This reflects the widespread belief that leadership can indeed be taught, and particularly,

learned. In spite of its surging popularity, there are significant gaps in research in terms of how to teach leadership effectively and the relationship between leadership development and performance outcomes. Such factors

as “what” (programme goals and content), “how” (structure and pedagogical methods), “who” (in terms of participants and facilitators), and

“how will one measure effectiveness” (primarily by outcomes and secondarily by perceptions) have not been adequately investigated in

connection to each other. There is also a paucity of research comparing leadership development in different professional domains to ascertain the extent to which it is universal versus domain-specific. This paper reports

My PhD research, building on previous work, investigatinges how leadership can be taught effectively by focusing on development

programmes for military officers, business executives, doctors, and professional athletes. This follows an identical study done at the University of Toronto and an MPhil dissertation on a comprehensive, university-based

programme in the UK for senior business executives from 12 different countries. Here I present preliminary findings of eEffectiveness based on

will be approached through performance data collected by participants and their organisations and onthrough the perceptions of those involved in

teaching and undertaking the programmes.

Welcome

A warm and earnest welcome to the inaugural Oxbridge Canadian Conference. With submissions from the social sciences, sciences, and

humanities, we hope to exhibit today the depth and diversity of Canadian academics studying at both Cambridge and Oxford. As an academic and

networking platform for Canadian students, we are confident that this event can become an annual fixture in the calendars of Canadian students

and those studying Canada, creating a new and lasting tradition that exemplifies Canada's consistent contribution to academic scholarship.

Furthermore, we want to highlight the role that Canadians are playing on the world stage and, indeed, here in the United Kingdom. Our keynote

speaker, Mr Robert C. Hain, embodies this aspiration fully. An alumnus of the University of Toronto and the University of Oxford, he personifies the

deep links between Canadians and the United Kingdom, as well as the educational and career opportunities available to Canadians in an

increasingly competitive and borderless global and intellectual economy.

We sincerely hope that you find today's events and talks not only intellectually stimulating, but also proof of the quality of Canadian ideas

and Canada's importance to global thinking. Thank you.

The Oxbridge Canadian Conference Organizing Committee 2013

Andrew Deonarine and Justin Fantauzzo Conference Founders (Cambridge Canadian Club)

Annalijn Conklin (Cambridge Canadian Club)Kateryna Pakhomova (CanSoc Oxford)

David Kent (Cambridge Canadian Club)

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Dog-training Programs in Prison: Effects and Implications for the Correctional Service of Canada

Barbara J. Cooke (bjc49@cam.ac.uk)Girton College, University of Cambridge

To date, dog-training programs have been implemented in over 150 U.S. states and two Canadian prisons. These programs use inmates to train dogs

to work as either service animals or to increase their chances of being adopted. Anecdotally, they appear to improve both institutional and

personal factors (e.g., staff/inmate rapport, self-control) as well as recidivism rates. Two program evaluations of Canadian dog-training programs have been conducted—Lai (1998) and Richardson-Taylor & Blanchette (2001)—but relatively little research has been conducted on

these programs despite their widespread use. This paper will outline the findings of the Canadian evaluations and discuss the current findings of an

on-going evaluation of five programs in two U.S. states. The policy and prison programming implications of these findings for both the U.S.

Department of Corrections and the Correctional Service of Canada will also be addressed.

Programme9:45 AM: Organizing Committee Opening Statements

11:15 AM: Break

13:00 PM: Lunch

10:00 AM: Infection (Aaron Lim) ........................................................................................10:15 AM: Genomic Analysis of Novel Strains of Swine Influenza in Europe (Pinky Langat) .....................................................................................10:30 AM: Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis: Going Viral (Jean-Francois Gelinas) ...............................................................................................................10:45 AM: Measuring Up in Timber: High-Rise Wood Buildings in Europe and Canada (Patrick Fleming) ...........................................................11:00 AM: Geoengineering: Technical challenges and the SPICE project (Hilary Costello) ................................................................................................

11:45 AM: Statistical Forensic Fingerprint Identification (Peter Forbes) ...12:00 PM: Greenland, Natural Resources, and Canada’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council (Dawn Berry) ......................................................................12:15 PM: Bounding Nature: Canadian and Russian Arctic National Parks and Sovereignty (Mia Bennett) ..............................................................12:30 PM: Economic distributive justice, Canada, and the 21st century (Catherine French)...............................................................................................12:45 PM: By Luck and Design (Ellen Quigley) .............................................

14:00 PM: Give, Give, Give: charitable fundraising in the age of uncertainty and austerity (Rosalind Franklin) ...............................................14:15 PM: From Law to Kapp: the Canadian contribution to the debate on human dignity as the basis for human rights (Philippe-André Rodriguez) ...........................................................................................................14:30 PM: Financial Market Power as Cause of and Antidote for Regulatory Failure (Rasheed Saleuddin) ......................................................

Virus Versus Host: A New Perspective to Modelling HTLV-I

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Combating Human African Trypanosomiasis (Sleeping Sickness): Investigating the Uptake of Nutrients and Blood Proteins by the Parasite,

Trypanosoma brucei, from the Bloodstream of Humans and Animals

Olivia Macleod (ojsm2@cam.ac.uk)Magdalene College, University of Cambridge

Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) or sleeping sickness. Approximately 300,000 new HAT cases and 52,000 deaths occur annually.

The parasite Trypanosoma brucei causes both sleeping sickness and livestock diseases that greatly reduce agricultural productivity. Sleeping

sickness is one of thirteen neglected tropical diseases, affecting the world's poorest populations. Canada's Toronto Star recently reported that

Canadian universities fall behind in prioritizing such diseases. The parasite is transmitted to the bloodstream by the tsetse fly and avoids immune

detection by constantly changing its surface coat. It is thought to survive usingsurface receptors that take nutrients from the bloodstream, however, only two of several possible receptors have been identified. Thus there is great need to further investigate how the parasite survives in mammals. This paper reports PhD work characterising the function and structure of 14 potential surface receptors. In doing so, this work will allow design of

better drugs against this devastating disease. Current treatments are difficult to administer and toxic. This project expects to directly benefit

people affected by T. brucei.

14:45 PM: Technology, Economics and Nationalism in Canada: the Transnational Market of Assistive Reproductive Technologies (Kathleen Hammond) .........................................................................................................15:00 PM: Combating Human African Trypanosomiasis (Sleeping Sickness) (Olivia Macleod) ...............................................................................15:15 PM: Dog-training programs in prison: Effects and implications for the Correctional Service of Canada (Barbara Cooke) ...................................

16:30 PM: Teaching leadership effectively to professionals in different contexts (Jaason Geerts) ....................................................................................16:45 PM: Exploring the Post-secondary Aspirations of Aboriginal Students with Exceptionalities (Carly Beth Christensen) ............................

15:30 PM: Break

15:45 PM: Address by the High Commissioner Gordon Campbell

16:00 PM: Keynote Address: Canada and the Meaning of Everywhere (Rob C Hain, Chair of the Foundation for Canadian Studies, and Chairman, City Financial Investment Co. Ltd)

17:00 PM: Organizing Committee Closing Statements

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Virus Versus Host: A New Perspective to Modelling HTLV-I Infection

Aaron Lim (aaron.lim@maths.ox.ac.uk)Wolfson College, Oxford University

The persistent retrovirus human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) infects an estimated 10-25 million individuals world-wide and is

characterised by life-long infection and risk of developing one of two major, clinically independent diseases: an aggressive blood cancer, adult T-

cell leukaemia (ATL), and a progressive neurological and inflammatory condition, HAM/TSP. Infected individuals typically mount a large,

chronically activated cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response against HTLV-I-infected cells, but ultimately fail to effectively eliminate the virus.

Moreover, the exact mechanisms of pathogenesis remain elusive and a precise determinant of disease outcome has not yet been identified.

A key issue in current HTLV-I research is to better understand the

dynamic interactions between persistent infection by HTLV-I and virus-specific host immunity. One important feature of HTLV-I that has not been considered in within-host mathematical models of HTLV-I infection is the simultaneous expression of multiple, antigenically variable, viral proteins

in the pool of infected target cells.

In light of this observation, we develop a mathematical model for the within-host infection dynamics of HTLV-I that captures the inherent

heterogeneity and diversity in provirus-positive cells and host immune responses, thereby allowing us to explore the connections between

abundance and structure in both the virus and CTL populations. The consideration of antigenic variation at multiple viral epitopes prompts the

usage of a multi-locus modelling framework representing the complex host-virus interactions that define HTLV-I infection in vivo. Results from

our model offer insights to the evolution of strain structure and its significance to the diagnosis and treatment of HTLV-I-associated disease.

Technology, Economics and Nationalism in Canada: the Transnational Market of Assistive Reproductive Technologies

Kathleen Hammond (kah72@cam.ac.uk)University of Cambridge

Over the past 30 years, there has been rapid evolution and growing demand for assistive reproductive technologies (ARTs): technologies that

assist in achieving and monitoring a pregnancy. The ART market is a unique one – fuelled by parents willing to go to great lengths to conceive.

The demand is high and desire deep. ARTs have led to medical service markets, and markets for eggs, sperm and surrogacy. The Canada ART

Register (2003, 2006 and 2007) demonstrates increased use of the technologies, and the opening of more ART centres. However, supply and

demand for gamete donors and surrogates is in disequilibrium, with donors and surrogates in scarce demand in Canada. As a result, Canadians

are contributing to the transnational market of assisted reproduction: traveling south of the border, or elsewhere, to seek donors and surrogates, and simultaneously receiving ART medical services outside of the country. In my presentation, I will address the factors behind this disequilibrium, as well as the impacts of this transnational market for (1) Canadians utilizing these technologies, (2) the Canadian economy, and finally, (3) for Canadian

nationalism.

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Financial Market Power as Cause of and Antidote for Regulatory Failure

Rasheed Saleuddin (rkms2@cam.ac.uk)Darwin College, University of Cambridge

My paper describes the regulatory regime in Canada for retail structured financial products. Specifically it addresses the possible causes of the regime's failure to avoid significant financial product 'accidents', with

sometimes catastrophic results, during the latest financial crisis of 2007-2009, and considers the observed lack of post-crisis regulatory change.

Primary research, conducted via interviews with senior decision-makers at many of the largest financial institutions as well as industry experts and civil society organizations, offers a unique perspective on the regulatory

regime's context and content. I found, firstly, evidence of continuing government failure, likely due to client politics. The second finding, and key contribution of this paper particularly to the self-regulation literature, is the identification of instances where financial firms, likely due to market

pressures to maintain reputation and 'licenses to operate', are going 'beyond compliance' with the formal regime. Finally, this paper reports

failures of reputational risk management to prevent product failures which likely resulted from misaligned incentives combined with a lack of full

understanding of the risks on the front lines. All on-the-ground managers interviewed would welcome more state intervention in their space, even as

upper management lobbies against tougher regulation. This paper concludes that better information from learning and deliberation combined

withincentives to match customers with suitable products would make firms and individuals with the best reputations more of a mitigant to

government failure and less of a cause of regulatory failure.

Genomic Analysis of Novel Strains of Swine Influenza in Europe

Pinky Langat (Pcl27@cam.ac.uk)Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

As demonstrated by the recent swine-origin H1N1/2009 pandemic, pigs may play an important role in the pathogenicity and epidemiology of

influenza A viruses. They can act as a ‘mixing vessel’ for the reassortment of genetically diverse avian, swine, and human influenza viruses to

generate new, pathogenic strains potentially adapted for cross-species transmission. The European Surveillance Network for Influenza in Pigs 3

(ESNIP3) project aims to gain insights into the epidemiology and evolution of swine influenza viruses (SIVs) circulating in Europe in order to define

and reduce public health risks of influenza and improve pandemic preparedness. We developed a robust, BLAST-based mapping approach to

assemble influenza virus sequencing data for large-scale genotypic identification. Application of this whole-genome assembly method and

phylogenetic analysis to examine 180 influenza-positive samples isolated from European pigs has demonstrated improved detection of a broad range of influenza A viruses, including novel reassortant strains of SIVs described

here for the first time. Our findings reveal the ongoing changes in the epidemiology of circulating SIVs in Europe, highlighting the necessity for continued surveillance of swine influenza to minimize potential risks to

public health.

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Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis: Going Viral

Jean-François Gélinas ( jean-francois.gelinas@keble.ox.ac.uk)Keble College, Oxford University

Gene therapy offers the potential to treat a range of genetic conditions including lung disease associated with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). CF is the most common lethal inherited disease affecting Canadian children and young

adults. One in every 3,600 children born in Canada has CF, with a median life expectancy of only ~36 years. Typically, CF individuals suffer from

repeated bacterial infections of the airways eventually leading to respiratory failure. To date, no treatment that targets directly the genetic defect is available, despite its identification in 1989. Our aim is to utilise a virus specifically adapted to enter airway cells to transfer the correct gene

to CF patients. This research will be translated to the clinic in order to prevent decline in lung function and early death. Development of this new viral technology is also an exciting opportunity to treat other lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema.

From Law to Kapp: the Canadian Contribution to the Debate on Human Dignity as the Basis for Human Rights

Philippe-André Rodriguez (philippe-andre.rodriguez@exeter.ox.ac.uk)Exeter College, University of Oxford

Canadian Rhodes Scholarship

This paper examines the contribution brought by the Canadian Supreme Court (CSC) to the current debate about the value and legitimization of human dignity as the philosophical and legal basis for the international human rights system. Canada once was the main supporter of human

dignity as the legal grounding for equality, a reality that is easily identifiable in the 1999 decision Law v. Canada, which created the Law

Test. The stated mandate of this test was to determine whether a given law demeans the dignity of individuals or groups. However, the CSC soon realized that it was impossible to judge a violation of human dignity

because, as the Court would state in the 2008 decision R. v. Kapp, 'human dignity is an abstract and subjective notion that […] cannot only become

confusing and difficult to apply; it has also proven to be an additional burden on equality claimants, rather than the philosophical enhancement it

was intended to be.' (Par. 22) I argue that paradoxically, by undermining the importance of human dignity, the CSC allowed the intellectual human rights discourse to strengthen. Indeed, the rapid shift from Law to Kapp

stirred a profound intellectual questioning among philosophical and legal academic circles: the justification for human dignity as the grounding of human rights shed light on the conceptual relationship between the two

notions and unfolded the internal structure of human dignity.

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Give, Give, Give: Charitable Fundraising in the Age of Uncertainty and Austerity

Rosalind Franklin (ref40@cam.ac.uk)King’s College, University of Cambridge

While social investments by philanthrocapitalists dominate the news and preoccupy academic debate, overlooked is the importance of giving by

average citizens to the third sector. In Western Europe and the Americas, charitable fundraising has steadily crept into almost every niche of public space and even into the most private and profit-oriented spheres. Hit up

night and day in creative and multifaceted ways, citizens respond by walking, running, selling and buying consumer goods, offering personal

banking details to strangers on the street, convincing others to donate and so forth to support the charitable sector. This paper explores this

fundraising frenzy as emblematic of the sector's changing relationship with the state, market, and citizen in modern democratic societies. Arguing that

the sector is neither shadow state nor shadowing the market, the paper suggests that the sector's progressively hybrid, knowledge-driven, and

adaptive nature provides for fundraising's vegetative-type growth. Two contrasting interpretations on this widespread appropriation of space, time

and money are presented with the intent of provoking discussion on whether the sector’s traditional values and role have been compromised.

Sources include Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, research in behavioral economics, gift theory, and socio-spatial concepts of

Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey.

Measuring Up in Timber: High-Rise Wood Buildings in Europe and Canada

Patrick Fleming (phf22@cam.ac.uk)Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge

The widespread use of massive structural timber elements, such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels and glulam beams and columns, allows

architects and engineers to design and build with wood at unprecedented speed and scale. Moreover, the growing concerns of climate change and the

carbon emissions associated with the construction sector also encourage wood as a viable alternative to steel and concrete construction due to the

CO2 sequestration effect of growing trees. However, pioneering examples of mid and high-rise timber buildings in the UK, Canada, and Austria, ranging from 6 to 30 stories in height, still closely resemble the forms

already established by steel and concrete structures. In reference to the historical development of structural materials such as cast iron and

reinforced concrete, this copying is expected and confirms that current ideas for designing tall structures with wood are still immature. Rather than narrowly focusing on construction and technical aspects, architects and engineers need to explore and research new ways of adapting and

using wood to respond to architectural and urban issues. A design proposal for a six-storey office building in central London shows how

simultaneous experimentation and engagement with material, architectural, and urban issues is not only possible, but also beneficial and may reinforce each other. The project raises questions for further structural

and architectural research, and demonstrates how large-scale wood buildings can be more successfully integrated into an existing urban

context dominated by brick, steel, glass, and concrete.

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Geoengineering: Technical Challenges and the SPICE project

Hilary Costello (hc360@cam.ac.uk)Churchill College, University of Cambridge

Geoengineering, or climate engineering, is a growing topic of interest and is inciting heated debate around the world. The SPICE (Stratospherical

Particle Injection for Climate Engineering) project is conducting research on the engineering, climate modeling, particle science and ethics associated with a form of geoengineering which would mimic volcanoes and inject

particles into the stratosphere using a high-altitude tethered balloon. The focus of the research at the University of Cambridge is on the engineering challenges associated with the delivery system of the particles, including the tethered-balloon system dynamics and pumping requirements. The presentation will aim to give an introduction to geoengineering and its

associated technical challenges in order to generate informed discussion on the political, ethical, economic and social issues related to geoengineering..

By Luck and Design

Ellen Quigley (ecq20@cam.ac.uk)Claire College, University of Cambridge

As it is told in the media today, the story of Canada's resilience in the face of the 2007-2009 financial crisis and its aftermath is one of smart regulation

in the context of a liberalised financial sector. But this good news story obscures a more complicated narrative – one of geography, history,

regulatory strengths and weaknesses, institutional structure, and happenstance. The country's portrayal as a free market exemplar with

smart regulation gives a false picture of successful financial sector policy for other states to emulate. Canada, whose policies have often mimicked those of the U.S. or the U.K. throughout its history, chose to reinforce its

financial regulatory regime even as its largest trading partners went in the opposite direction. However, the simplest and most common explanation for Canada's resilience obscures its devolution toward some of the same deregulated practices that ensnared the U.S., with consequences muted

only by their delayed execution. Although stringent regulatory and supervisory frameworks certainly account for part of the system's

resilience, protectionism in the banking and mortgage insurance sectors and good timing may have played a commensurate role. So, too, did

legislation enacted in the 1980s and 1990s which was meant to prevent recurrences of bank failures, ballooning of government deficits, and high unemployment and interest rates that characterised that era. Moreover,

demand for commodities in Asia kept commodities prices high throughout the crisis, compensating somewhat for damage to other sectors. Canada

was partly smart, partly lucky.

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Economic Distributive Justice, Canada, and the 21st Century

Catherine French (caf55@cam.ac.uk)Dept. of Philosophy, University of Cambridge

Canada presents a special challenge for theorists interested in economic distributive justice. Theorists of distributive justice are interested in the question of how best to distribute the benefits and burdens of economic

goods in a political society. Canadian policy-making at each level of government ultimately presupposes a certain conception of how best to

distribute economic goods. The choices made about this matter at the level of principle greatly affect actors at all levels in everyday contexts:

individuals, groups (cultural, ethnic, religious, etc.), corporations, and government. This talk has two parts. First, this talk expounds the

importance of the philosophical enterprise of selecting the best principles to guide political decision-making. Second, I offer an analysis of how we, as

Canadian citizens, should think about the question of economic distributive justice. Specifically, I present this analysis alongside considerations

pertaining to the issues most central to Canadian political life: multiculturalism, equality of citizens, and democracy. Special focus is given

to the interplay between this theoretical project and empirical facts about the moral, political, and legal context in Canada, both now and what is to

come over the next century.

Statistical Forensic Fingerprint Identification

Peter Forbes (forbes@stats.ox.ac.uk)Somerville College, University of Oxford

I am developing a model to quantitatively assess the strength of forensic fingerprint evidence. For over one hundred years, a fingerprint match has been considered infallible should be more clear, infallible/incontrovertible evidence by courtrooms worldwide. Thus in most courtrooms worldwide,

including Canada, legal precedents prevent fingerprint experts from quantifying their uncertainty.

Contrary to the above opinion, there have been several high-profile fingerprint convictions that were later overturned based on DNA evidence. This has instigated a strong push within the forensics community to switch

to a probabilistic presentation of fingerprint evidence in court.

To enable this switch, a standardized method for quantifying the strength of fingerprint evidence needs to be developed. I am developing such a

model using the mathematical theory of spatial point processes.

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Greenland, Natural Resources, and Canada’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council

Dawn Alexandrea Berry (dawn.berry@history.ox.ac.uk)University College, University of Oxford

This May Canada will assume the governance of the Arctic Council. The overarching theme: “developing the people of the north” indicates that Canada will take a distinctly business oriented approach to its mandate.

Canada’s chairmanship comes at an important moment in the development of many arctic nations and will be particularly significant for Greenland. The global economic crisis and global warming are both increasing the

demand for natural resources and, in some cases, the ability to access and extract previously inaccessible deposits. Many arctic powers, including

Canada and Greenland, are expanding mining, oil, and gas activities in the north. For Greenland this expansion will be especially significant. The new Greenlandic government is hoping to utilise revenue from the development

of its natural resources to transform itself from a colony dependant on Denmark to an independent nation. As with other arctic regions, however,

there are tensions between efforts to maintain traditional ways of life on the one hand, and the need to derive income from the exploitation of natural resources on the other. This talk will explore the ways in which the stated

objectives of the Canadian mandate for the arctic council relate to the contemporary development challenges facing Greenland.

Bounding Nature: Canadian and Russian Arctic National Parks and Sovereignty

Mia Bennett (mbennett8@gmail.com)Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge

Scott Polar Research Institute; Foreign Policy Association

Today, conservation efforts of Arctic states tend to reflect a territorialized, state-based approach. This contrasts with international conservation efforts in the post-Cold War period, which perceived the region more as a global commons. In this paper, I examine the ways in which Canada and Russia use national parks as instruments to express sovereign rights through an analysis of territory, sovereignty, and foreign policy discourse. I compare

Canada's proposed Lancaster Sound National Marine Conservation Area at the mouth of the Northwest Passage and Russia's recently expanded

Natural System (zapovednik) of Wrangel Island Reserve near the eastern entrance to the Northern Sea Route. These two case studies allow for an

examination of the domestic politics of zoning, exclusion, and access alongside Arctic geopolitics. Both parks are complex products of domestic and foreign policy, making them densely layered spaces of contested and contingent sovereignty. Canada, espousing liberal democratic values, has traditionally been more receptive towards multilateralism in the Arctic, whereas a more assertive Russia views international relations in realist

terms. Yet both countries draw on regimes such as UNCLOS and UNESCO's World Heritage Committee to defend their sovereignty in

contested waterways. Whereas around the world, states have historically created national parks in areas without significant economic value, Lancaster Sound and Wrangel Island lie in waters valuable for their

geostrategic position and shipping potential. As I will show, the creation of national parks in these two areas can actually promote sovereignty and economic interests, but at the cost of excluding certain parts of society.

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