Clutching my Asian Studies/International Relations degree from UBC (1972), I landed a job in the Pacific, Asia, Africa Bureau of Industry, Trade and Commerce in Ottawa in 1973. For the next five years, I learned the ropes of international commerce, working directly with foreign governments to explain and promote Canada’s interests in matters of trade policy, trade promotion, investment, tourism, consular, immigration, visas, and trade law.
Over this period, my responsibilities grew as I progressed from the Korea Desk to covering China and then Japan, developing multi-cultural communications skills and the ability to work in interdisciplinary teams.
From 1978 to retirement in 2009, a sheaf of international assignments (Seoul, São Paulo, London, Atlanta, New Delhi, and Ho Chi Minh City) with increasing responsibilities—culminating with Consul General in HCMC—gave me wonderful opportunities to hone these skills and develop new ones. For example, I was sent to New Delhi to bring coherence and cohesion to our diverse, disparate Indian office network: my team-building skills necessarily advanced quickly.
Home Postings
In the midst of this run of international assignments, in Ottawa in 1991 I joined the unfortunately-named “Prosperity Secretariat” as Director of Community Talks. Over a 20-month period, we conducted 125 grassroots, town-hall discussions across Canada, mostly in smaller communities. Resulting skills: political sensitivity; managing up; public dialogue facilitation; motivating teams; tight, timely communications.
I had 1993-4 off to earn a Master’s degree at Canada’s National Defence College in Kingston, ON. Our class mantra: “So What For Canada? What kind of policies for what kind of Canada in what kind of world in 2004?” served me well in subsequent assignments. I also had 5 years as Director of Trade in Vancouver where, among other things, I became National Champion of performance measurement for our 12-office domestic trade network.
Charitable and Social Justice Activities
Living abroad and travelling extensively over the past four decades, my wife, Jan, and I became increasingly aware of the growing impacts of climate change and income inequality, especially in the Global South. In 2004, Jan convinced me to join Rose Charities, a Vancouver-based charity with projects all over the world. We started with fundraising to help support Sri Lankan communities devastated by the catastrophic Asian tsunami (2004). During our subsequent posting to Ho Chi Minh City, Jan established Rose Vietnam through which we supported a number of health, income support and environmental projects.
After retirement from the Foreign Service (2009), Jan and I engaged in a range of projects including disaster relief in Cebu following Hurricane HaiYan, a physical therapy clinic in Cambodia, and women’s health issues in Afghanistan and Nepal.
After moving to Victoria, we got the Fairy Creek ‘bug’, supporting protests and forest protectors on the front lines of this massive civil disobedience movement. I became a member of the steering committee for Elders for Ancient Trees, now with 900 followers in BC (mostly Vancouver Island). We coordinated protest/public awareness efforts with BC’s leading ENGOs, which produced a “United We Stand” declaration signed by 230 organizations around the province. Jan passed away in 2023 but I carry on the work she started, which now includes “Jan’s Trees”, a tree-planting and public education project in southern Zambia, under the Rose Charities umbrella.