Ivan Head Put the Third World and the Arctic on Canada's Map Of
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iE'DRC4LIb 0592-2 MAI 1988 Head MAY 1988 for global affairs lvan Head Out the, Third I p:R A i (if and the/ 'K3i4 f k6tic A4 S( jitF 'f on map' h t i tfF of!for9n policy '' vu Wit;s 0 f( ui s A M Y I THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SATURDAY, MAY 28,1088 b5 SUITE THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1988 CONTINUED 2. BY JUDY STEED The Globe and Mail IS REPUTATION precedes him: Ivan Wanderlust is in his blood. His Head was Canada's Kissinger, for eight mother, Birdie Larkin, came from years the "special assistant to the prime Prince Edward Island, descended minister," responsible for "foreign policy from a Maritimes family that in- and the conduct of international rela- cluded the captain of a clipper ship tions. " who was lost at sea. His Aunt Belle, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, once a globe- who at the turn of the century was trotting leftist, developed a passion for widowed young, moved to northern foreign affairs while occupying the highest office in the British Columbia, ran her own busi- -id; under Mr. Head's tutelage, Prime Minister ness "and prospered to the extent . udeau pursued an activist foreign policy that gave that she could vacation in Europe - Canada a high profileon the global scene. this was before the First World War," says Mr. Head The Trudeau-Head duo mounted a sophisticated with proud emphasis. A more contemporary relative is campaign to defend Canada's Arctic sovereignty former Tory member of Parliament David MacDonald, against U.S. incursions, conducted controversial meet- now Canada's Ambassador to Ethiopia. ings with the likes of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Two Heads listed in the Canadian Encyclopedia, he established diplomatic relations between Ottawa and observes, are no relation. "One (Sir Francis Bond Beijing in 1970, a move that was considered a brilliant Head) was the Governor of Upper Canada who caused breakthrough in Washington, which did not recognize the rebellion of 1837 and the other one (Sir Edmund China until 1979 under President Jimmy Carter. Walker Head) was the Governor-General of all of Can- Ivan Head had influence and access. A slender, fair- ada (then known as British North America, from 1854- haired lawyer and an expert on constitutional matters 61). " Their existence may explain the persistence of the and international law, this so-called "patrician mys- false rumor that Ivan Head has aristocratic connec- tery man" had a red phone in his Langevin block office tions. The encyclopedia describes Mr. Head simply as that was connected directly to the prime minister. But "combative, strong-willed and idealistic." in 1978, Mr. Head stepped out of the inner circle, into the Mr. Head was born in Calgary on July 28, 1930, the dark chasm that divides rich from poor. grandson of a Cockney plumber. His father, a civil problem is the single most servant during the Social Credit regime of William "The North-South Aberhart, was sometimes paid in "scrip," otherwise " he then, as he presssing issue facing us, said assumed known as "prosperity certificiates"or funny money. the presidency of the International Development Re- Centre, a Crown corporation that supports Ivan's upbringing was neither religious nor political. search He was not required to go to School, unusual in scientists in their own quest for devel- Sunday Third or that era, and politics was "not to be discussed." This opment. being the Depression, his mother's theme was: "At Ten years later, the IDRC still provides Mr. Head's least your father has a job. " Arthur Head hung onto it. links to the global village and his passion for Third Arthur's job with Alberta Government Telephones World development is unabated - as is his fear that if took him into management ranks (to the heights of the rich don't care, the problems of the poor are going to corporate comptrollef) and in 1944 he moved the family pull us all into the soup together. to Edmonton, where Ivan finished high school. "Our economies in the North are now dependent on "I wanted to become an airplane pilot," says Ivan. "I the economies of the South," says Mr. Head, seated in built model airplanes and hoped the war would contin- IDRC headquarters in Ottawa, surrounded by the ue until I was old enough to join up. But then I was 'otsam and jetsam and artistic treasures of a life lived shattered when a high school teacher said, 'Would you .n the international lane. "There's a net cash flow of want to be a taxi driver? That's what a pilot is, a high. $50-billion a year, South to North, and it's no longer for priced taxi driver in the sky.' " the purchase of goods - they can't afford them. Unsure what to do with his life, Ivan graduated from They're using their cash to pay the interest on loans. high school at 16. His father, a working-class Brit, My message to the Trilateral Commission (which met discouraged him from going to university "because no in Tokyo in April) was that a series of disequilibria is one in the family had gone to university." His mother, building up. It's uncontainable." fortunately for him, "knocked down all the rules - she He sketches: Out-of-control population growth - was an ardent feminist, she was a real get-up-and- monitored in IDRC's lobby, where a digital clock flips getter. "Ivan enrolled at the University of Alberta. He relentlessly, adding people at the rate of 25 born every was a top student, captain of the track team, ambitious 10 seconds; today, the total is (for 10 seconds) - for what, he wasn't sure, but he had drive. 5,063,057,626. Add the moss migrations into cities of He figures he got his enthusiasm from his mother; illiterate people "full of despair and anger, beyond the from his father he got "the stamina to stick to it, to run control of theirown governments." the marathon - without that element you can be a In this dangerous brew swim the dealers - the weap- butterfly." He describes Arthur Head as a cautious ons salesmen who are, in Mr. Head's opinion, more workaholic who ended up with gastric ulcers and pernicious than drug dealers; indeed, they are often emphysema, dead at 62. interlinked, as drugs are sold to buy weapons. The Birdie Larkin Head is still alive at 84. Typical of her dealers promote the spread of the arms race to poor exploits was an assault on the local ladies' committee countries, encouraging them to control their people that was selling UNICEF Christmas cards, usually militarily instead of educating them. The poor coun- distributed from a tiny closet in an inaccessible lo- tries buy weapons that in many instances they don't cation where most people would be sure not to find it. know how to use. But they learn, and the arms race Mrs. Head persuaded a department store to give her a escalates. The worst poison of all - violence - window on Jasper Avenue. spreads. "Holy cow," says her son, remembering the excite- ment. "The sales of "The future of the North on the South," says UNICEF Christmas cards explod- depends ed and it caused so Mr. Head. "I'm not losing optimism, but I'm losing much consternation that eventually confidence." It's the lethal combination of population growth, environmental degradation and the nuclear arms race that batters his confidence. But against the SUITE negative forces is the positive thrust of groups such as 'DR . A drop in the bucket, perhaps, but Mr. Head has CONTINUED chosen to act in the face of despair. He would say there Is no choice. HIS MAN who loves the planet had seen only a very small part of it until he was an adult. Mr. Head is a child of Southern Alberta, a re- gion- he is still enor- mously attached to evenI--- after travelling to all the exotic places that still thrill him in a chil- dishly joyous way. 'year. But the following year, Mr. Trudeau became "The only way Canada could assert primeminister. s authority was through legal mech- anisms, "says John Honderich, author R. HEAD stayed 10 years with Mr. of Arctic Imperative: Is Canada Los- Trudeau, through the rise of Quebec ing The North? "The Arctic Pollution nationalism, the infamous War Mea- Prevention Act became the world's she was forced out by the little old ladies, who didn't for? "M Hea thought, at first: "Because it's myjob." sures Act of 1970 and the election of strongest anti-pollution law. It was approve. " But he pondered more deeply and "a spark lit in me Rene Levesque's Parti Quebecois, the lynchpin of Canada's strategy. Mr. Head graduated with a law degree in 1952 and about the developing countries, about the richness of events that dominated the nation's Since that time, the Law of the Sea was in on the beginnings of Alberta's mighty oil boom. their cultures, the wealth of history, global politics, the political agenda. But these were not convention has allowed Arctic states to pass He did not, however, take advantage of it. Many clients human race." the issues for which Mr . Head was similar anti-pollution taws." were fledgling oil company executives who offered him He fell in love with thoughts of the diversity of human responsible. The trio that occupied his attention: Arctic Thus Canada pioneered a new, non- a share of the action in return for his services; the experience and expression.