bout de papier, Vol. 32, No. 2 (2022), p. 32
VERN TURNER, A FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER and Ambassador, with a career of extraordinary depth and breadth, died on December 26, 2021 in Ottawa. He was predeceased by his wife, Beryl.
His career included two stints in Vietnam as a political advisor on the international commissions supervising the implementation of agreements to resolve the long-standing conflict in the country. After a posting to London, where he met and married Beryl, Vern’s career took him to Canada’s Mission to the United Nations in New York in time for Canada’s 1967-68 membership of the Security Council for a two-year term as a non-permanent member. Eric Bergbusch, a colleague and friend, provides a vignette of Vern’s UN assignment below.
Vern then went on to a posting in Warsaw where he served as chargé for a long period. From there he went to Dar es Salaam as Acting High Commissioner before pitching up in Washington as the Minister (Political) during the Ford and Carter administrations.
In the final decade of his career Vern served as Ambassador to Israel before becoming Ambassador to the USSR for most of the Gorbachev era. As Eric’s tribute below confirms, Vern was a pragmatic realist endowed with a formidable intellect. In Ottawa he and Beryl were frequently to be found at the National Arts Centre, where they were sustained supporters of its Orchestra.
I remember Vern Turner — a vignette by Eric Bergbusch
DURING THE INTENSE DEBATES in the Security Council before, during, and after the Arab—Israeli (Six Day) war of 1967, Vern Turner worked as George Ignatieff’s principal assistant at the Canadian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York. The proceedings of the Council were televised and followed closely in Canada and elsewhere. Mr. Ignatieff, as Canada’s Permanent Representative, spoke in every phase of the debate to show Canada’s concern, and desire to assist — so far as it could — in finding a lasting, peaceful solution. The prime minister, Lester Pearson, and the foreign minister, Paul Martin, both provided their own guidance in addition to that coming from the Department of External Affairs. But frequent interventions, sometimes through the night, created a frantic need for many speaking notes.
Vern was at the centre of this maelstrom in New York. He brought a healthy streak of cynicism to his work together with a wry sense of humour and a down-to-earth and pragmatic approach. Mr. Ignatieff, facing another day or night of debate, had the habit of asking Vern, Geoff Pearson in the UN division, and myself in the Africa and Middle East division for speech material. The pace of demands for words, day and night, was debilitating: if we found time to watch television, we would often see George casually pick up our three separate texts and weave together passages from each.
In the midst of all this, Vern called Geoff and myself and proposed a solution. We would consult among ourselves whenever George phoned us to ask for speech material, we would discuss the themes briefly and decide who should provide a text. The other two would try to get some rest that day or night. It worked. Mr. Ignatieff was just as cogent, but a bit less orotund, speaking from one text rather than three — always adding his own words and style. We also entered into a conspiracy to cut out, whenever we could, Mr. Ignatieff’s favourite but over-used, phrase, “At this neuralgic point.” That worked some of the time.
Happily, Vern Turner never lost his sense of humour nor his sense of proportion during the rest of his long and productive career.
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 32, No. 2 (2022), p. 32. Read the rest of this issue →
