BOOK REVIEW COMPTE RENDU Witness and Bit Player — a Life in Canada’S Foreign Service
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BOOK REVIEW COMPTE RENDU Witness and bit player — a life in Canada’s foreign service James Bartleman. On Six Continents: A Life in Canada’s Foreign Service. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2004. Review by John Noble im Bartleman dedicates his book assistant secretary to the Privy Council Committee. I served as executive assis- on his life in the Canadian for- Office for Foreign and Defence Affairs. tant to a brilliant but somewhat logis- J eign service to his colleagues and Bartleman qualifies the 1985 change tically challenged Ambassador George “their long suffering families.” He in Canadian law which permitted his Ignatieff. We both watched in fascina- chronicles his career from the time he mother to regain the Native status she tion the debates in the Canadian dele- had black hair and a thirst for adven- was stripped of when she married his gation between the foreign minister tures through six continents and nine father, a white, as “a highlight of my Paul Martin Sr. and the newly elected postings to a time when he had life and a definition of my identity Pierre Elliott Trudeau on Canada’s become a “somewhat battered, white when I was granted recognition at that position on China. haired dinosaur, all too ready to waste time as an aboriginal Canadian.” I did not attend the diplomatic the time of his officers by telling sto- Before going any further I have a reception described by Bartleman ries of his life in years gone by.” He confession to make: Jim Bartleman where the Canadian host and several makes clear the impact which a foreign and I were classmates in Foreign others were so inebriated that they service career can have on spouses and Affairs, having both joined in 1966. were on their hands and knees. Nor children, and the key role and sacri- Our careers rarely crossed paths except have I ever witnessed such an event. fices they made in following him in later years, but many of Bartleman’s Bartleman attributes this party as one around the world. experiences mirror my own. I first of the reasons Pierre Trudeau was so Bartleman describes his book as recall meeting Jim when he came into dismissive of Canada’s foreign service that “of witness or bit-player to many my office in the Langevin Building after he became prime minister. of the seminal events affecting and told me he was replacing me the Canada’s foreign relations in the latter following Monday, something which artleman recounts his adventures third of the twentieth century.” The Personnel had not seen fit to inform B on his first posting to Colombia book is full of wit and self deprecation me about. He also told me about him- where his biggest challenge was deal- and the trauma of depression which self and his background, which was ing with the Canadian ambassador plagued the later part of his career. It is different from any of our colleagues in and his wife, sleeping with a loaded also an interesting read and shows the class of 1966. We both spent part pistol under his pillow to ward off Canada as a land of opportunity where of the fall of 1966 at the UN General criminals. Bartleman’s second posting someone from such humble begin- Assembly, but at different times and in was to Bangladesh to open Canada’s nings can rise to the pinnacle of the very different roles. He was an advisor first high commission there after the Canadian foreign service as diplomatic to a chain-smoking member of the war of independence split East advisor to the prime minister and Canadian delegation on the Fourth Pakistan from West Pakistan. Here he POLICY OPTIONS 77 MAY 2004 John Noble COMPTE RENDU encountered poverty on an almost demands for Canadian forces in endured there, and how he might have unimaginable basis and worked hard Bosnia, Somalia and elsewhere. By the fared better in Berne. with his CIDA colleagues to ensure the 1990s the prevailing view in Ottawa Bartleman recalls that his depres- delivery of Canadian food aid and was that Canadian ambassadors have sion worsened in South Africa and that other aid projects. no role in policy formulation, they following the savage attack by an intruder at his hotel in Cape Jim Bartleman and I were classmates in Foreign Affairs, having Town, he “plunged into a both joined in 1966. Our careers rarely crossed paths except deep pit of post-traumatic in later years, but many of Bartleman’s experiences mirror my shock that left him with an overwhelming desire to own. I first recall meeting Jim when he came into my office in die.” The government the Langevin Building and told me he was replacing me the offered to cross-post him to following Monday, something which Personnel had not seen Australia to make a new fit to inform me about. start. He found that writing his memoirs, Out of Bartleman went on to the simply carry out instructions, often Muskoka, and the current book proved Canadian Mission to NATO in Brussels from very junior officers. The tragedy to be therapeutic magic for his depres- where he served as “general dogsbody is that so many of them fall into line sion. He enjoyed Australia except for and backup officer to the ambassador without so much as a whimper! the attitude many Australians have on the crisis of the day.” Bartleman Bartleman devotes less than six toward their Aboriginal peoples. met and married his wife Marie- pages of his book to the four years he Less than a year into his posting in Jeanne, during this posting and two of spent working directly with Prime Australia, Bartleman was surprised their three children were born there. Minister Chrétien (1994-1998). (He is when Chrétien offered him the post of Bartleman’s first post as ambassador already writing a separate book on this ambassador to the European Union and was to Cuba. President Castro would period called “Roller Coaster — My advised him to take it. With his wife’s come to the Canadian residence to meet Years with Jean Chrétien” which will blessing, they decided to make their visitors and in the case of Agriculture provide an inside look at policy forma- third move in three years. He found Minister Eugene Whalen to upbraid him tion and the big issues such as fish war, that Canadians and Europeans were for complaining about the conditions in Zaire, Bosnia, globalization etc.) drifting apart and he tried to reforge the his guesthouse. The Cubans also poi- Bartleman notes that real power and ties which had been “so badly neglect- soned the Bartleman’s family dog, lead- often the day-to-day management of ed by both sides throughout the ing Jim to protest to the Cuban foreign foreign policy issues shifted from the 1990s.” Early in 2002 Bartleman was ministry to “call off your goons.” ministers at Foreign Affairs to the appointed the first Aboriginal lieu- Bartleman’s chapter on his posting prime minister and his staff in PCO. tenant governor of Ontario, a post to Israel is interesting as he sets out the Bartleman describes the onset of which he has occupied with distinction challenges faced by any Canadian diplo- his depression which would eventually and innovation in support of the mat going there: members of the Jewish force him to leave the PCO and seek a Native communities of the North. and Arab communities in Canada less stressful job as High His book is well worth reading threatened to ruin his career if he “did Commissioner to South Africa. In the and should help inspire young not toe their mutually exclusive lines.” spring of 1998, I was coming to the Canadians to join the foreign service end of four eventful years as minis- and gives insights to others as to what n October 1990 Bartleman returned ter/deputy chief of mission in Paris the real work of diplomats involves at I to NATO as ambassador. He and had hoped to return to Ottawa. home and abroad. describes how he learned of the deci- However Ottawa proposed that I go to sion to withdraw our troops from Lahr, South Africa. At the time, Jim John J. Noble spent over 35 years in the Germany and was told he should not Bartleman was considering going to Canadian foreign service, including stints question the decision. This was a far Berne, Switzerland. We talked about as ambassador to Greece, minister to contrast from the debate inside the other options he had in getting back to France and ambassador to Switzerland. new Trudeau government in 1969 Europe. However he decided that life He is a fellow of the Weatherhead Center about the level of our commitment to in Berne would be too quiet, so he for International Affairs at Harvard and NATO and the role played by the then opted to go to South Africa, and we was a Fulbright Fellow at Michigan State ambassador to NATO, Ross Campbell, went to Berne. I have often wondered University in 2002. He is currently direc- in limiting their reduction to 50 per- what would have happened had I gone tor of research and communications at cent. But the Cold War was over and to South Africa and been faced with the Centre for Trade Policy and Law at there were other more pressing the terrible physical attack which Jim Carleton University/University of Ottawa. 78 OPTIONS POLITIQUES MAI 2004.