Actually, I saw Perun do a segment on Canadian defense, particularly as the Arctic ice recedes. This is going to pose some additional challenges for them (e.g. they need more Coast Guard and icebreakers). Especially as several nations try to stake a claim to the Arctic (especially Russia).

So, yes, they are going to have to start patrolling their northern islands (not really a border), lest someone squat and say 'this is ours now'.

Yes, but Dope is referencing military conflict up to WW3 and cutting off our access via water, which doesn't apply to most of Canada. There's only one good deposit on the islands, the rest ( a dozen or so) are in the Canadian land mass. And I'm not sure how it would work with any deposits on the Indian lands up there (the island is owned by indigenous people).

So Dope could be referencing the Chinese harassing us shipping ore from Australia to Texas for processing, or from Greenland, but he'll glom onto anything.

Right now, saying deposits in friendly territory are not desirable due to some potential armed conflict with China is indulging speculation. China has already restricted processing and banned processing technology from leaving China. The processing is the key, China has a lock on that, but Lynas has been producing and making a profit now for years. China lowered the price of rare earths to hinder competition outside of China. Many Chinese internal producers were losing money at those prices - but Lynas was profitable at those prices.

So we cut out a couple of years by partnering with Lynas and we get a look at their IP. What's different with rare earths is you have to tailor the processing plant you build to the ore as it's various mixtures embedded in different materials.