On Six Continents: A Life in Canada's Foreign Service, 1966–2002

Serge Durflinger is an assistant professor of history at the University
of Ottawa. His latest book is Lest We Forget: A History of the Last Post
Fund, 1909-1999.

Since 2002, James Bartleman has become best known for serving as
Ontario’s lieutenant-governor. Yet his highly readable, anecdotal
memoirs of 35 years spent in Canada’s diplomatic service illuminate
his role in the implementation of some fascinating Canadian foreign
policies. Between 1966 and 2002, a transitional period from “Golden
Age” middle-power status to an era of waning Canadian influence on the
international stage, he served in New York, Colombia, Bangladesh, at
NATO headquarters in Brussels, Peru, Cuba, Israel, South Africa,
Australia, and elsewhere.

Bartleman is at his best describing the many poignant, sometimes
frightening, and often humorous situations he encountered overseas. He
provides moving and colourful accounts of his Third World postings,
especially to Bangladesh. Fidel Castro takes on a larger-than-life role
during Bartleman’s description of his ambassadorship to Cuba in the
early 1980s. It is revealing to note the degree to which Canadian
diplomats and their families were subjected to formal and informal
harassment in Havana, notwithstanding the overt friendliness of the
Trudeau government.

One interesting, if perhaps underdeveloped, backdrop to his
recollections is that the author is a Metis, and that his is truly a
rags-to-riches story. Displaying initiative and professionalism, he
nevertheless pierced the crust of Canada’s bureaucratic elite. He has
never forgotten his roots.

By the mid-1990s, while seconded to the Privy Council Office and
serving as Jean Chrétien’s foreign policy advisor, Bartleman began a
long, painful slide into severe clinical depression about which he is
candid. Under immense pressures, he had become a workaholic. Poor morale
and high-handed political interference in the Department of Foreign
Affairs did not help. “By the spring of 1998,” he writes, “I had
become so ill that carrying on was no longer an option.” Although he
was thrown a lifeline by being named High Commissioner to South Africa,
Bartleman’s misfortunes continued: his depression worsened and, in
1999, he was severely beaten by an assailant during a hotel robbery. But
he bounced back from his despondency and turned to writing as a therapy.
We’re glad he did: this is a cleverly written, frank, fast-paced, and
entertaining book.