bout de papier, Vol. 9, No. 3 (1992) — Summer 1992 // Été 1992, p. 3
Presentation of the 1992 Canadian Foreign Service Officer Award held in Ottawa on June 17, as well as one Special Commendation and three Citations, highlighted a number of themes.
The first of these is constructive engagement. It is no secret that the relationship between PAFSO and the senior management of the Department has been strained of late. The Social Affairs announcement, poor morale in general, continuing attacks on resources and limited advancement possibilities all have played their part in creating an atmosphere of mutual mistrust. PAFSO, and the members it represents, have grown increasingly cynical and unresponsive to management’s claims about the value placed on human resources. On the other hand, I suspect that management was caught off guard by the intensity of PAFSO’s reaction to the decision to transfer the Social Affairs stream to Employment and Immigration.
In these circumstances, PAFSO believes that there is a heightened need for constructive engagement. Such engagement was a major objective of the Awards Dinner. Over 200 people attended the dinner at the National Arts Centre including Minister McDougall, our three Deputy Ministers: Reid Morden, Don Campbell and Peter Harder (CEIC), and a large number of other attendees, including a sizeable contingent of journalists. More important than the number who attended, is the fact that the Awards Dinner was the product of close cooperation between the Department and PAFSO. It demonstrated that there are matters on which we have common interests and that pursuing them jointly does not mean that either of us has abdicated our respective beliefs or responsibilities. It was an event that encouraged an informal, if brief, dialogue between individuals, all of whom, I hope, went away with a better understanding of each other’s concerns.
Over the last several months, PAFSO has been working on the development of a political and a communications strategy the mean feature of which is the constructive engagement between PAFSO and management in areas of common interest. We hope to approach management with an action oriented plan later in the fall after we have had a chance for further reflection and consultation with the membership.
Unity in the Foreign Service was another theme underlying this year’s Awards Dinner.
As the decision to move the Social Affairs stream to Employment and Immigration comes to be implemented, the importance of events that bring all the Foreign Service together will become more important. In institutional terms, PAFSO will be one of the few organizations representing the collective interests of the Foreign Service. A key role for PAFSO will be to serve as the link between different stream members, to ensure that their common identity as Foreign Service Officers remains firmly established That view was most eloquently presented by the acceptance speech given by Daniel Jean, the 1992 winner of the Special Commendation. Mr. Jean’s experiences as the immigration and consular program manager in Haiti reminded him of the need to examine our own situation here in Canada, especially in contrast to some of the conditions encountered elsewhere and of the need to preserve and build upon the good fortune we enjoy as Canadians. Similarly, we need to preserve and build upon the excellence that has come to be the hallmark of the Foreign Service.
Of course, the Awards Dinner credited professionalism as exemplified by the winners. Professionalism is composed of many elements, but it is recognizable, above all, as an attitude. That attitude was evident in the words of the 1992 Award winner, Bob Turner, Senior Trade Commissioner in Santiago, who wondered why he should be singled out for doing a job that he loves so well. In this case, the answer lies in the question itself. The professional attitude was also evident in the genuine humility of Mervyn Meadows who accepted his citation not on his own behalf but on behalf of the entire Embassy in Moscow. Taking a given situation and exploring the outer boundaries of its possibilities was recognized in the citation given to René-François Désamoré who had made CanadExport into an important source of information for Canadian exporters. Excellence of management was also recognized in the citation awarded to David Hardinge for his efforts in the delivery of the immigration program in Warsaw. The 1992 Awards allowed PAFSO to spotlight the achievements of a few individuals whose endeavours serve to give further definition and clarity to what we mean when we speak of the Professional Foreign Service Officer.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 9, No. 3 (1992) — Summer 1992 // Été 1992, p. 3. Read the rest of this issue →
