Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Kessel, I appreciated the comment you made about claim versus ownership, that you don't claim something you own. Can we infer, though, that when we see claims from other nations on our territory, what they're trying to do is chip away or create doubt in the minds of others? I suppose my question is how we counter that, but before I have you answer, I'll just come back to something Mr. LeBlanc was saying about the perception. I think you asked, perhaps rhetorically, for him to raise some examples.
We've seen over the years the back and forth on Hans Island with troops from both countries. We've seen the Russians dropping a flag into the ocean allegedly at the North Pole—a Russian flag, however many metres down—and then, of course, occasional excursions by Russian airplanes into our territory, or on the fringe anyway before they're chased out. So there is something going on here. There's a perception in the north about a shakiness that is not, to use his example, in downtown Toronto.
You might be absolutely correct in terms of the legality, but what's going on in terms of the competing claims, and do these actions by these foreign states, in your opinion, strengthen their claim for this territory despite our ownership?