Report: Amigos South

John,

It is my duty to report that Wednesday the 23rd of February found a number of colleagues gathered together at a pub in San Miguel de Allende - the cradle of Mexico's independence - and residence, or part time residence in exile, for a growing number of ex-Canadian foreign service types including: M-L Gagosz, the Doswells, Eytons, Winfields, McFarlanes, Bresolins, and Valentines.

It is my further duty to report that it was a balmy (23c) evening on the patio of this new restaurant and pub featuring very reasonably priced drinks and food. News of snow in Victoria and ice in Ottawa did little to cool the enthusiasm of the exiled.

An added feature was the background strings of renowned Canadian-Russian flamenco guitarist Andrei Krylov (see video - wow! - ed). Fortunately, our group was sufficiently distanced to not have all the nostalgic chit chat and guarded gloating interfere too much with his music.

I wish also to report that little damage was done to either establishment or guests and that this has nothing whatsoever to do with any age factor. Rather, it displays the refined comportment of the people present last Wednesday who, as you know, are not new to being guests in another country.

Finally, I would like to record that at no time throughout the entire evening was anyone offered recreational drugs (outside of tobacco and alcohol), forced to take marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine or heroine, shot at, beheaded, asked to join a cartel, raped, pillaged or assaulted with a high-powered weapon imported from the USA. Some may have been asked to buy one of Andrei's CD's.

Trust you are well.

Your esteemed colleague,

........................don

Famous Sheik Sitting Portrait

Canadian Deaths in Cairo Remembered

Jim Elliott thought that in the light of today's news from Egypt the Amigos could spare a thought for Joseph MacLeod Boyer.

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1952 Jan. 27: "CANADIAN TRADE COMMISSIONER SLAIN - Rioters in Cairo Kill J. M. Boyer, Former N.B. Man - Canada Will Protest To Egypt Through U.K.; Two Others Die as Mobs Burn City's Fashionable British Turf Club.

Ottawa, Jan. 27 - Canada will make an official protest against rioting which led to the death of Joseph MacLeod Boyer, Canadian Trade Commissioner, killed in Cairo Saturday, diplomatic officials
said today.

Since Canada has no direct diplomatic link with the Egyptian government, the protest will be made through the United Kingdom, officials said.

But no other action is being planned against Egypt, though officials here were deeply moved buy the report that the 54-year old commissioner was a victim of anti-foreign demonstrations in Cairo.

H. W. Cheney, acting director of the trade commissioner service, said the report of the death was "a tremendous shock". Officials in Cairo had said only a short while ago that they thought they could
ride through the uprising without being molested.

It was believed to be the first such killing in Canadian trade commissioner history. There had been other deaths in the worldwide service, but none involved the same set of circumstances which saw a
Canadian become a victim in a split between two other powers.

Mr. Boyer, a veteran of two world wars, was not the kind of man to incite hatred or ill-feeling, his trade department colleagues said. Tall and spare, he was reserved and hard-working, ever mindful of
his duty.

Reports from Cairo said Mr. Boyer, a native of Victoria, N. B., was among three men who died when the rioting mobs burned the fasionable British Turf Club in the centre of Cairo.

The body has been identified by C. E. Butterworth, 27, of Ottawa, assistant trade commissioner at Cairo.

Joseph "MacLeod" BOYER 1897-1952
MacLeod Boyer, B.A., is the first to win an appointment as Junior
Trade Commissioner in Canada, he having led 400 applicants from
coast to coast. In 1946 he was Canadian Trade Commissioner
living in Chicago.
In the late war J. MacLeod Boyer won the Military Cross at Cambrai.
married on 5 Sept. 1923 Helen Marion GANTER 1896-1989

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The above from a history of his birthplace in New Brunswick. I [Jim Elliott] have a bit of an interest. His ATC, Charlie Butterworth, apparently witnessed his boss being torn apart by the street mob, escaped in Arab dress, and resigned. While he was waiting for the separation paperwork, claims etc, to be processed he was sent on a sort of recruiting tour. Among those to whom he spoke was yours truly.

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Five years later, Cairo was the location of another Canadian death, this time of our Ambassador, Herbert Norman, who took his own life as a result of anti-communist hysteria in the US Senate. A CBC archives clip can be heard here. - Ed

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DFAIT Re-invents the Wheel

Further to the July 13 broadcast message [internal DFAIT only] introducing the Canada Bureau (BSD), we wish to share more detail on the Bureau’s structure, vision, mandate, and developments.

Structure

The Canada Bureau (BSD), part of the International Business Development, Investment and Innovation Branch (BFM), unites the Regional Office Strategy and Operations Division (BSR), DFAIT’s network of 12 Regional Offices (ROs) and six satellite offices, the Intergovernmental Relations Division (BSI), and the Consultations and Liaison Division (BSL).

Mandate and vision

Under the New Business Model, the Canada Bureau’s mandate is to better connect the Department to Canadians. The traditional strength of the Regional Office network has been its on-the-ground relationships with business clients and local partners. The Department will apply this effective approach more broadly to support a wider range of policies and activities while continuing to build its core Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) strength. The vision of the Canada Bureau is to develop and leverage DFAIT’s domestic expertise and networks to enable targeted, coherent and aligned stakeholder engagement and service delivery. The Bureau now delivers three primary business lines:
Advancing Canada’s Global Commerce Strategy by:

• increasing Canada’s international commercial engagement by working with missions and HQ to attract and develop clients through the ROs and connect them to global business, investment and innovation opportunities;
  
  
• collaborating with HQ and missions to attract and retain foreign direct investment.

Advancing the Department’s priorities through outreach and engagement by:

• developing and leveraging the Department’s domestic stakeholder network, including partner departments and agencies, other orders of government, and key national business and industry associations;
  
  
• delivering the Speakers’ Program and supporting Corporate Outreach; and
  
  
• promoting the Government’s trade policies and programs in the regions of Canada.

Strengthening the Government’s foreign and trade policies and programs by:

• providing insight and advice grounded in domestic realities, notably by:
  • managing or advising on consultations with the private sector (e.g. the Minister of International Trade’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Advisory Board and the Sector Advisory Boards), and federal/provincial/territorial consultations on trade policy (C-Trade) and Global Commerce Strategy implementation;
    
    
  • offering direction on a wide range of provincial/territorial (PT) issues including: PT international interests and activities, memorandums of understanding and other arrangements, management of co-locations, PT participation in international meetings; and
    
    
  • collaborating with the Sector Practices and other HQ divisions to advise Missions on Canadian commercial capabilities.

US Banks Turn Away Dips

US banks close diplomats' accounts, citing high cost of

adhering to federal anti-money laundering regulations,

according to this.

The Rumpole of Canadian Trade

2 Jan 2011

Ottawa Citizen

(Michael Hart's article in today's business section -- here -- is also copied in full, below).

Bill was in many ways the Rumpole of Canadian trade policy. What you saw and heard was what you got. A bit rumpled and sometimes gruff, easygoing about clothes, entertainment and cars, but demanding in wine and food, he had a penetrating intellect and a prodigious knowledge of history, literature and, of course, trade and economic policy. He adored a succession of dogs and was a regular walking the incumbent, Willie, along the river in New Edinburgh.

Ironically, for a man who chose diplomacy as a career, he did not much like small talk nor the idle chatter that marks diplomatic receptions. For him, diplomacy was a matter of policy and negotiations, not relationships and cocktail parties.

He came to Ottawa in 1967 and joined the then Department of External Affairs. Armed with a brand new MA in economics he was, uncharacteristically, assigned to the economic division. There he found his métier and developed an outstanding grasp of the intricacies of trade policy. For the next 33 years, he was involved in a wide range of trade negotiations, from GATT and UNCTAD to bilateral air agreements and a multilateral investment accord.

Even after retirement, Indian Affairs asked him to take on native land claims.

The pinnacle of his professional career was achieved as a key member of the team that negotiated the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. It proved a terrific but all-consuming assignment and defined who he was for the rest of his life. Bill captured well the special bond among us by reminding us of the St. Crispin’s Day speech in Shakespeare’s Henry V:

From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered – We few, we happy few, We band of brothers;

His two most important preoccupations of the last few years were grandchildren and golf. Both involved weighty competition with his friends. Bill is survived not only by his wife Patricia and two sons, Michael and Christian and their wives Rebecca and Ann, but also by three grandchildren: Abigail, Sabena, and James. He loved visiting them and sharing their accomplishments.

A year ago this September, Pat and Bill celebrated 40 years of marriage by renewing their vows in their garden and embarking on a second honeymoon, completing an important milestone on Bill’s bucket list: following the steps of the last few stages of the famous medieval pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. It requires a 140-kilometre walk over the course of six days through the foothills of the Pyrenees. Bill and Pat completed the journey, sore feet and all, and could proudly wear the cockleshell emblem.

On Nov. 30, at a moving memorial service at St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church in New Edinburgh, nearly 300 friends and family joined in celebrating Bill’s life. He had lived a good life and a productive one. He was loved by many and will be missed by more.

Michael Hart worked with Bill Dymond for the past 35 years in both government and at Carleton and was his frequent golf and writing partner.