bout de papier, Vol. 12, No. 3 (1995) — Fall 1995 // Automne 1995, p. 2
At the risk of betraying my defining cultural moments, I would like to recall that the Beatles once sang in their rather miserable Magical Mystery Tour album, “you say hello, I say goodbye” (or maybe it was the other way around). Well, that’s how it is today with this edition of bout de papier.
After two years on the job as editor, I am turning over the reins to Nick Coghlan. As most of our readers know, editorship of bout is not a life appointment nor does it last as long as a Senate term or the even longer term appointment at the FS level.
I am pleased with what the Editorial Board, Debra Hulley, Acart Graphics and all contributors to bout accomplished over the last two years and would like to thank them all for their help and work. We improved the design; defined clearly each section of the magazine; increased our visuals; maintained a regular quarterly schedule; increased our French content; and put out the trilogy on the foreign service (The 100th Anniversary of the Trade Commissioners; A Day in the Life of the Foreign Service; and this Immigration and Citizenship edition).
My major disappointment was our inability to increase readership. That being said, we take pride in having resisted easy and cheap tricks to increase our readership such as the suggestion to have a full page photo of a scantily clad “Play ADM of the Quarter”
So I say “goodbye” and move to the back pages from where I came, and now Nick says “Hello”.
Before embarking upon my first attempt at an editorial, I should tell our readers that outgoing editor Kevin O’Shea, who has now departed for the Bonfire of the Vanities (the Canadian Consulate General in New York, that is) was the true initiator of this special issue on immigration, and it is he who must take the credit (or the brickbats).
Kevin’s tenure at “bout” was a remarkable one. Its highlight was perhaps the monumental “Day in the life” issue, a snapshot to the entire Canadian Foreign Service taken
2 bout de papier Vol. one Spring day in 1994. So successful was this issue that — it can now be revealed — the PAFSO Executive Board did its utmost to block his posting to the USA. Kevin foiled this by a brilliant manoeuvre. Knowing full well, one day, that I was out of the office at lunch, he lett a message on my voice-mail to the effect that, it he did not hear back from me in five minutes, he would inform the Board that he had found a replacement editor — me. I lingered over lunch, and the deed was done.
In spite of these inauspicious beginnings, I am particularly proud, as an immigrant to Canada, to take over the helm as the special immigration issue hits the presses. Most immigrants to Canada have their own “immigration story” — some happy, some tragic – and I am no exception.
A Brit living in Buenos Aires in the early eighties, I had applied for teaching jobs in New Zealand and British Columbia. An offer was forthcoming in BC, and my wife and I duly began the lengthy immigration process — interviews, references, medical test, police records — at the Canadian Embassy in Buenos Aires.
Came the great day, and we were summoned to the Embassy, in a large tower block in downtown BA. We were not invited to sit down; the Canadian immigration officer informed us bleakly and tersely that, on the points scheme that Canada used to judge the suitability of prospective immigrants, we had failed to make the grade. Despondently, we shuffled out. We were waiting wordlessly at the elevator when the locally-engaged receptionist surreptitiously beckoned to us. “Show me your forms” she whispered. “Just as I thought”, she added after a few moments. “Take these new forms and apply again, this time putting your wife’s name at the top of the form, as head of family.”
To my chagrin, my wife — a Systems Analyst — scored ten points to my zero as a teacher. We were immediately admitted to Canada.
Enjoy the issue and — if that LES receptionist is reading this — thank you.
View the original scanned pages →
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 12, No. 3 (1995) — Fall 1995 // Automne 1995, p. 2. Read the rest of this issue →
