bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 4 (2019), p. 45
In Zurich, on September 18, 2017, surrounded by his family, Christian Sarrazin passed away peacefully of a rare neurological disease.
Né a Ferme Neuve, Christian eut une enfance heureuse au sein de sa famille. Il a complété son baccalauréat à l’Université McGill et obtenu une maîtrise en Économie de l’Université de Louvain. Passionné de politique et grand admirateur de P.E. Trudeau, chez lui seul l’attrait de vivre à l’étranger primait sur celui de la politique.
Christian joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1974 and had a distinguished career with postings to San Francisco, as well as Beijing, before being appointed Canada’s first Consul General in Shanghai. The late Carl Rufelds, his mentor in San Francisco, was “immediately impressed by Christian’s personality, diligence, intelligence and potential. It was a pleasure to follow his career and (to) see what a Helluva good officer he became.”
Shanghai was truly the highlight of his career, as he felt that he was breaking new ground in China. His mastery of Mandarin allowed him to fully appreciate China’s culture, history and traditions. Of those days, Ted Lipman, a China-hand reminisced that “Christian and I worked together in Beijing in the late 70s, as well as, HQ. He had a wicked sense of humour, which I shared. In Beijing, we sent a bogus telex to our boss and Senior Trade Commissioner, posting him to Shanghai. Ironically, he never made it there although Christian and I did.”
In his ultimate public service position, Christian was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Canadian Commercial Corporation, a large crown corporation responsible for government to government foreign trade. Then-Deputy Minister Nick Mulder said that what struck him was the depth of Christian’s trade and rules knowledge and how cool and calm he was, when others were less focussed.
Rick Kohler, good friend and a fellow Trade Commissioner recalled fondly the many facets and diversity so abundant in Christian’s eclectic profile. “He possessed a remarkable dashboard of interests from diplomatic statecraft to the arts, music, cuisine and literature.”
Cynthia a intégré sa vie et les deux ont forgé une relation étroite pendant plus de 20 ans. Elle s’est consacrée entièrement aux besoins de Christian alors que sa santé périclitait. Christian était d’avis qu’il fallait vivre la vie avec dignité, le plus longtemps possible. Il manquera profondément à Cynthia, à ses enfants, à sa famille aimante et à ses nombreux amis, qui se souviendront de lui.
Originally published in / Publié à l’origine dans bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 4 (2019), p. 45. Read the rest of this issue / Lire le reste de ce numéro →
