Rollercoaster
Readers of bout de papier need no introduction to James Bartleman, currently the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario and formerly a member of the Canadian foreign service, as well as an advisor for four years to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on Canada’s international relations.…
Havana Vignettes
Havana is a city of antiques. The cars are ancient, the buildings often ruinous and even el Presidente’s famous beard is now grizzled. I like antiques. They remind me of the past and the individual human stories that I can weave around…
On Six Continents: A Life in Canada’s Foreign Service, 1966–2002
The review in bout de papier last winter of James Bartleman’s account of his early life, Out of Muskoka, expressed the hope that some day we might be given a full account of his professional life. Now we have it.
On Six Continents
I first saw Dhaka on a sweltering afternoon in June 1972. The two-hour flight from Bangkok over Burma and the Bay of Bengal gave me time to sit back in air-conditioned comfort and feel that everything was going my way. Here I…
Hunting Hemingway
For years rumors have circulated that the early history of the Canadian official residence in Havana was scandalous. A lover, an outraged husband, the third floor studio and flagrante delicto all figured in the house’s pre-Canadian history. Certainly visitors often remarked that…
Cubismo
Viche Petit nudged the Embassy’s vin age brıcklın around a line of heat crazed lambada dancers, gyrating frantically in the July sunshine, and through the gates of the Presidential Palace. “Now remember, Liebnitz.” he cautioned, “Don’t raise the subject of the OAS…
Learning the Ropes
It was 1979, and we were being posted to Lagos, Nigeria. The whole family came to the airport to see us off. Upon check-in, to my horror, I realized that one of our suitcases had been left behind in my parents’ driveway.…
