Uncharted Waters
Alert readers of the previous issue of bout de papier will have noted the striking absence of the necessary chart from the Aalto puzzle “Buenas tardes, Señor Liebnitz”. We are now in a position to confirm that the chart was stolen by…
Resistance & Revolution — Vaclav Havel’s Czechoslovakia
Vaclav Havel might well be remembered by historians for providing the best vision as a world leader in the final years of this century. His speeches, plays and essays have been read by diplomats, writers and legislators around the world. The author…
Bohemian Tragedies
“Who is master of Bohemia,” the Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, once remarked, “is master of Europe”. That strategic importance was a mixed blessing in the history of the republic of Czechoslovakia, as it had been in the thousand years after Great…
Over the Volcano
Diplomatic life in Mexico has produced at least one literary masterpiece. It is hardly flattering to the profession: Malcolm Lowry’s dishevelled hero in “Under the Volcano”, the British Honorary Consul in a thinly-disguised Cuernavaca, spends the entire book staggering around in a…
John Halstead C.M. 1923-1998
John Halstead was one of the ‘Greats’ of our Foreign Service. The service of Thanksgiving for his life was held on a bright, sunny day in mid-February. It was a celebration of one who followed until death his credo of giving the…
One Foreign Service Officer’s Experience
I have been in the Foreign Service for 15 years and will be going on my fifth posting this summer. I have been in a relationship for 20 years and my spouse has never been on posting with me because of the…
Same Sex Couples: Making progress, step by step
Gay and lesbian members of Canada’s Foreign Service have come a long way since the grim days of McCarthyism and the purge of hundreds of gays from the civil service in the 1960s. Targets among the latter included Canada’s former Ambassadors to…
Sexual Orientation and the Public Service: The Changing Workplace
While the extension of basic human rights to gays and lesbians has certainly been a very slow process, there have been some significant legislative advancements made over the last 5-10 years. But changing the mentality of intolerant people may be the hardest…
The Americas: On the Brink
The Canadians who best knew Latin America at the beginning of this century were a small band of dedicated missionaries and a handful of intrepid entrepreneurs. Otherwise, Canadians at large ignored the exotic and oh-so-foreign land of Carmen Miranda. There was a…
Examination and Selection for the Foreign Service of Canada
The following article is extracted from “Recruiting Tomorrow’s Ambassadors: Examination and Selection for the Foreign Service of Canada, 1925-1997”, which will appear in a collection of essays edited by Robert Wolfe entitled Diplomatic Missions: the Ambassador in Canadian Foreign Policy. The book…
