The Constant Diplomat: Robert Ford in Moscow
Robert Ford joined Canada’s foreign ministry – then the Department of External Affairs – in July 1940, when being a diplomat, especially a Canadian diplomat, still mattered. It was a simpler time, or so it sometimes seems in retrospect, when diplomacy was…
Looking Back on the Cold War
I look back from time to time on my working life and ask myself what it was all about. I was in the foreign service for 40 years from 1953-93. Much of what I did in those years had something to do…
Social Purgatory in the Socialist Paradise
Readers of bout de papier wil! be familiar with John Watkins, whose last letter to John Holmes was reprinted under the title “From one ‘fantaisiste’ to another” (Volume 23, Number 2). In the aftermath of the revelations by Igor Gouzenko about Soviet…
Geoffrey Pearson
The following tribute was written by Mr. Basil Robinson and read by his daughter Brigitte Ann at the Memorial Service to celebrate Geoffrey Pearson’s life held at St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church on Saturday, April 12, 2008.
From One “Fantaisiste” to Another
John Benjamin Clark Watkins was born in Norval Station, Ontario, in 1902. He had specialized in Scandinavian studies at the University of Toronto and at Cornell University, from which he received his doctorate in 1944 (after working for more than a decade…
The Spirit of Kossuth
Fifty years ago, the First Secretary in the Canadian Embassy in Belgrade, A.F. Hart, and his wife, Marion Ruth (Sellers); entered Hungary on the day that a mass uprising began in Budapest against Communist rule. A peaceful demonstration was transformed into a…
Uncle Joe Who? Understanding Khrushchev and Forgetting Stalin
One of the more remarkable careers in Canadian diplomatic history was the one which took John Watkins (1902-1964) from the family farm near Norval Station, Ontario, to the senior ranks of the Department of External Affairs, with two postings in Moscow (including…
Raising Eyebrows: An Undiplomatic Memoir
by Peter Roberts
Presenting Credentials in Moscow
Geoffrey Pearson served as Canada’s Ambassador to Moscow from 1980 to 1983. Following is the text of his reporting telegram to Ottawa on his presentation of letters of credential ceremony, and Landon Pearson’s letter home on the post-credentials reception. Viewed through the…
We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History
Two years ago, John Lewis Gaddis spoke about the impact of the release of Russian and East European records on our understanding of the Cold War in a seminar at the Lester B. Pearson Building which was arranged in collaboration with the…
