Mission to Attila
If you believe that our Foreign Service is not what it used to be, (and sense positive alarm that anyone should study the role of the Political/Economic officer), I offer as a corrective a report by Flavius Priscus, a Roman diplomat, of…
Reengineering DFAIT
Change in DFAIT in the last several years has, to say the obvious, been enormous. Some changes have been small — dickering with the matrix system and with the FSD’s, dropping a few traditional functions, revising appraisal forms — though the principles…
A Voyage to America’s Hermit Kingdom
In retrospect, what was most surprising was that it hadn’t been done before.
Sea of Dreams
Different countries have different national fantasies. After you have served there for a while, you start to entertain those fantasies too. In Brazil, I found myself dreaming up Fitzcarraldotype schemes to develop the Amazon frontier. In Mexico, which has more than 600…
Move the Truck
Life has its difficult moments. Hailed back to Canada by the sudden and unexpected death of a parent is one of them. Sorting, packing and distributing her seventy-four years of possessions and memories rank right up there too. Shipping said items from…
The Quiet Hours
At most of Canada’s Missions abroad a Duty Officer has traditionally been responsible for dealing with emergency business outside the normal working day, on week-ends, and on holidays. Except for at the largest missions every officer save the Head of Mission has…
Letters // Correspondance
I have perused recent issues of the bout de papier and in particular, the Fall 1995 edition on Immigration.
Editor’s Notebook // Carnet du rédacteur
bout de papier is a strange animal. It has won a roomful of international awards over the years, but its editors have always run the magazine on a volunteer basis with the invaluable support and advice of a largely volunteer managing editor…
