bout de papier, Vol. 16, No. 3 (1999) — Fall 1999 // Automne 1999, p. 17
by Gary Harman
Tiss M. Michaelena McLaughlin, i who retired from the Foreign Service in 1989 was named on the July 1999 list of new members of the Order of Canada. Born and educated in Saint John, N.B., Michaelena joined the Department of External Affairs in October, 1953 and, in addition to periodic assignments of divisions in Ottawa, served tours of duty in Tokyo, Prague, Tel Aviv, Boston, Moscow, Dar es Salaam, Addis Ababa, Beirut, Kuala Lumpur, Lagos and Islamabad. Her work performance was of high quality and earned her promotions through the secretarial ranks.
Readers will be interested to learn that Miss McLaughlin was nominated for this award by the Retired Heads of Mission Association (RHOMA). There was a discussion in early 1996 in RHOMA’S Directing Group which noted that while a number of former Heads of Mission had been named to the Order, a long time seemed to have passed since the last one. Moreover, the awards had gone only to well-known senior officers; there had been no recognition of the “collective” of members of the Foreign Service working at home and abroad on behalf of the Government and People of Canada. The discussion concluded that RHOMA should nominate a rotational Canada-based staff member. Consultations were pursued within the Directing Group and it was decided to nominate Michaelena McLaughlin, a retired senior secretary. We quickly became aware that the Order of Canada wanted everything kept carefully confidential, but decided to ask heads of mission with or for whom Michaelena had worked abroad for their impressions and recollections, out of which we hoped to be able to produce a convincing nomination.
The results proved “fully satisfactory” The first reply received began, “Aside from the fact she made the Mission a better workplace with her indefatigable optimism and enthusiasm, I believe I have never met a more generous, kind-hearted person”. Another commented, “her deep personal interest in local culture and society was an inspiration to us all” “, and another, “Michaelena’s apartment was like a drop-in centre for volunteer workers, Canadian or not. Canada’s name in distant parts of Nigeria was enhanced by this devoted and sincere woman” • The nomination was crafted from the contributions of ten senior officers including the late Robert Ford, himself a Companion of the Order of Canada, and submitted by RHOMA Chairman Jim Nutt to the Awards Committee in August 1996.
The decision to name Michaelena McLaughlin as a member of the Order of Canada is above all a tribute to the lady herself, for the way she showed the best side of our nation to the wide range of peoples she met and worked with during her service abroad. It may also be seen, we believe, as a recognition of the many others in the Foreign Service, especially among the support staff, who have also tried in their work and contacts abroad to show what Canada and Canadians are all about.
We asked Michaelena to share with us a few of her favourite memories. They follow in her own words.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 16, No. 3 (1999) — Fall 1999 // Automne 1999, p. 17. Read the rest of this issue →
