A Soliloquy for Septuagenarians
In recent months some of our historians have published their matured spin to explain the course of Canadian events way back in the Trudeau era. Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy cries out for comment on its treatment of policy development…
A Scrap of Paper
As one of bout de papier’s supporters and contributors, from time to time I am asked why PAFSO’s quarterly was given its distinctive name.
The Department and the Country
(In this excerpt from a book he is writing about the Canadian foreign service, the author argues that foreign service officers must do much more to explain their profession to the Canadian public.)
Managing Diversity and Change
The Department buzzes with a current preoccupation with “managing change” (ie. organization and work-related change). Nothing is said about a concurrent need for “managing diversity” (ie. non-traditional composition of employees).
Undiplomatic Notes: Tales from the Canadian Foreign Service
When Sid Freifeld was active in The Department he was well-known and universally liked as a person who took on whatever was asked of him. That included opening a Press Office in spite of a management that really didn’t want us to…
Si j’avais écouté mon père …ou ma mère!
Si j’avais écouté mon père, je serais devenue
Media Diplomacy or Pin-striped Television —
A debate is raging furiously between a number of diplomatic historians and TV critics. Has the Gulf crisis changed the nature of diplomacy through the use of television?
Wot, me worry!
bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1991) — Spring 1991 // Printemps 1991, p. 35 Terry Jones The conversation beside me was very intense.Sipping their cafeteria-swill coffeevoices low, leaning forward, brows furrowedthey talked of increasing tension, worry, stress.“Do you feel it too?” I heard one ask.God yes! I wanted to shout, I worry:will my […]
Absence of Justice: Promotions, Appeals and the Merit Principle
As part of the Corporate Review process, a consultant was hired by the Department to study its organizational structure and management process. These he described as one of the worst in either the public or private sectors. The consultant focussed, inter alia,…
Crises
One day before the expiry of the United Nations ultimatum to Iraq, I attended a brief early evening ceremony on the 9th floor of the Pearson Building. Its purpose was to honour departmental employees who had served in our Embassy in Kuwait…
