Open House
On November 2, DFAIT held its first Open House to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Lester B. Pearson Building. This event was meant to increase public awareness of the work and accomplishments of DFAIT and to make the Department more open…
Visibilité nulle
Six personnes ayant joint le ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Commerce international comme agents du service extérieur en 1997, dont moi-même, se sont réunies récemment pour échanger sur notre perspective et tenter d’esquisser nos préoccupations. Dans les lignes qui suivent, nous…
The Cross Stream Assignment — Revisited
The typical attitude of Foreign Service officers towards the prospect of a cross stream assignment is one of scepticism. There is the widely held viewpoint that such a move can be severely career limiting. Traditionally, assignment officers have been reluctant or downright…
PAFSO Forum // Forum de l’APASE
PAFSO Forum/Forum de L’APASE will be a regular feature of bout where foreign service officers and others are encouraged to raise issues of current interest to the broad PAFSO membership. For the inaugural PAFSO Forum, we reproduce below a letter sent to…
Letters // Correspondance
Editor:
One Foreign Service Officer’s Experience
I have been in the Foreign Service for 15 years and will be going on my fifth posting this summer. I have been in a relationship for 20 years and my spouse has never been on posting with me because of the…
Same Sex Couples: Making progress, step by step
Gay and lesbian members of Canada’s Foreign Service have come a long way since the grim days of McCarthyism and the purge of hundreds of gays from the civil service in the 1960s. Targets among the latter included Canada’s former Ambassadors to…
Editor’s Notebook // Carnet du rédacteur
This issue of bout focuses on two disparate parts of the globe: Central and Latin America and the Czech Republic. And, in between, we look at Canada’s Foreign Service — from recruiting to relocation into the Pearson Building to same sex couples.
Colleen Cupples
On Saturday, September 13th, the Canadian Foreign Service lost one of its pioneering women. Colleen Cupples died at the age of 51, after a short stay at the Great West Memorial Hospital in Perth. As I listened to her friend Sara speak…
On Leaving the Foreign Service
Editor’s Note: With the permission of Elizabeth Gammell, bout reproduces below her letter dated November 27, 1997 addressed to Sylvia Cesaratto, Assignment Officer; Commercial Trade/Policy Personnel Division (SPF) DFAIT.
