Canadian Diplomats on Undiplomatic Strike

Diplomacy at its Dimmest

At one time in the dim and distant past of pride in country and elite representation, the very thought that high-paid, trusted and well-schooled in the art of representing-one's-country-abroad-representatives of the Canadian diplomatic corps taking unscheduled time off from their work to inconvenience their government by unrestrained work stoppages and pickets, would have been unthinkable. No longer, quite evidently, is that the case.

This is no mere inconvenience taking place, moreover. The improvidence of diplomats taking it upon themselves to withdraw their mandated and well-compensated professional services both to the foreign public it is meant to serve and the domestic public that pays those salaries, and scooping up in its disregard for diplomatic propriety the ministers who rely on their back-up when visiting missions abroad, is unspeakably wretched.

In the Canadian Foreign Service it is considered a prime posting to be sent to serve at Canada's embassy in Washington. Staff are meant to set the tone of dignity and awareness, complementary to the close relations that the two countries share as neighbours and major trading partners with similar societal values and engagement in social democracy. Expatriate Canadians living in the United States are dependent as well on Canadian embassy staff.

The Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers have taken it upon themselves as union representatives, to fashion the once-reliable and ethically professional corps into yet another group of dissatisfied, disgruntled and self-availing civil servants, who place their personal empowerment as strike-accepting union members above the government they serve, and the public weal they are meant to represent.

In so doing, making it evident that they value their personal demands in excess of their professional duties and reputation. PAFSO has spurned the offer of the federal government to settle their wage dispute, insisting that as expert professionals on the elite scale of employment as representatives of the country, they are entitled to salary increases over and above what other civil servants have been persuaded to accept in view of reining in government spending to balance the country's deficit.

Embassy staff, most in high-ranking positions have positioned themselves to slight the needs of those whom they are meant to serve in their diplomatic capacity. Ceremony, publicity, guidance and security have all suffered as a result. "This is the sort of stuff that falls apart when they don't come in. Things get dropped, briefing notes don't get done, there isn't as much media outreach, and it's not an ideal situation. There have been no major disasters, but certainly it causes a lot of hiccups", was the understated assessment of an anonymous embassy staffer.

Locally engaged staff, non-Canadians who are hired to do a lot of the mundane work at the embassy at a lower level of operation than Canada-based staff, are left to dependably carry the workload. The logistical, organizational headaches caused by the elite Canadian diplomatic staff represents a shameful state of affairs, deliberately imposed on a government department whose staff consider themselves to be exceptional and exceptionally entitled.