The Caravanserai of Mist and Moonlight
We are walking a country road behind a deserted church, cold wind blowing. A waning moon casts knife-thin shadows from the bare branches and silent owls cut across the stars. Father Guido says, “There are four kinds of places. Most, like the…
Escape from Germany
THE SUBTITLE OF ESCAPE FROM GERMANY could well be “the story of Pete Anderson, a genuine Canadian hero”. Through meticulous research conducted over 40 years, Jensen ably makes the case in his commendable biography that Anderson is an exceptional Canadian well worth…
The Hungry Diplomat: Avocado
AVOCADO. I love avocados. They make me happy. It took me most of my life to discover them. I didn’t grow up eating them. I didn’t know what they tasted like or what to do with them. Also, they’re green and weird-looking.…
A Lonely Telex Leads to a Blockbuster File
EDUCATION MARKETING IS NOW A DYNAMIC DOSSIER, well established within International Trade activities at Global Affairs Canada (GAC). In a statement released on 22 August, 2019, the then Minister of Trade Diversification, Jim Carr, noted that “in 2018, more than 720,000 international…
Les Prix de l’APASE 2019
LE JEUDI 13 JUIN 2019, collègues et invités se sont réunis à l’occasion de la 30e édition du diner de remise des Prix de l’APASE. Depuis leur institution en 1989, les prix ont servi à souligner les réalisations exceptionnelles de plus d’une…
Concours de photo de l’APASE 2019
LE THÈME DU CONCOURS 2019, « Vu d’ici », visait à donner aux membres de l’APASE une occasion de démontrer leurs compétences photographiques en captant leur expérience unique de la vie des agents du service extérieur dans des photos prises partout dans…
The Forgotten Flag
In 1965, the Maple Leaf replaced the Canadian Red Ensign as the national flag of Canada. Red Ensigns across the country were being retired. Two years later, I discovered a pristine example of what would turn out to be the first Canadian…
The Traitor Who Wasn’t
Herbert Norman was a senior and respected Canadian diplomat hounded to his suicide, in Cairo in 1957, by American McCarthyites seizing on his dalliance with the ideas of communism. Norman was interested in Marxist thought, and probably remained a moderate socialist throughout his life… but he was not a life-long communist and did not betray […]
Unmentionables
Here are three excerpts from Not Mentioned in Dispatches / Confidences peu diplomatiques, the recently released collection of over 50 intriguing stories and anecdotes published by our colleague organization the Retired Heads of Mission Association (l’Association des chefs de mission a la…
Travels to the End of History
FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II, the occupying forces — Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union (“The Four Powers”) — divided a defeated Germany into two states. The western zones became the Federal German Republic, or West Germany, and the Eastern…
