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Saturday, August 02, 2008

Canada has new ambassador to Ukraine

Included in a round of new diplomatic appointments by Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs on July 25 is a new Ambassador to Ukraine, G. Daniel Caron.

Here's what the government's press release has to say about him:

G. Daniel Caron (BA [Economics], Université Laval, 1980) has been deputy head of mission and minister-counsellor at the Embassy of Canada in Mexico since August 2005. He has occupied several senior positions within the Government of Canada over the past 27 years. He was director of the Japan Division at the Department of External Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa and counsellor at the Mission of Canada to the European Union in Brussels. Prior to this, Mr. Caron served as deputy director, Northern Europe Division and completed an assignment as regional director with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. In the 1990s, Mr. Caron served as a trade commissioner with the Japan Division and, during the 1980s, consul and trade commissioner at the Consulate General of Canada in Boston. He was part of the Canadian team that negotiated with France concerning fishing rights around Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. In 1978, Mr. Caron represented Canada in Ouagadougou at an international youth conference hosted by La Francophonie’s Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique. He and his wife Maria Aparicio have two children, Jean-Xavier and Marie-Lou. G. Daniel Caron succeeds Abina Dann.

Quite frankly, since Derek Fraser was our ambassador to Ukraine, I forgot there even was one. Hopefully this one will be a little more proactive and interactive ... and has a clue that many Canadians are interested in Ukraine and our country's role in the relationship between the two countries. (Ahem.)

Maybe he can even convince the Canadian government to update its list of ambassadors to Ukraine. (The last update was in 2006.)

I couldn't find a whole lot about our new ambassador on Google or the government website. That of course speaks only to my ineptitude in finding the info, not the government's in providing it. (Another story altogether.) So if anyone has a lead on more info, including a photo, please share!

8 comments:

Vasyl Pawlowsky said...

Yes indeed we are looking forward to meeting the new Canadian Ambassador to Ukraine.

Last Friday night was the traditional Canadian Embassy Pub night in Kyiv, and there were a great number of people on hand to say farewell to Abi Dann!

After Ambassador Dann said her last words to all those who were gathered, we sang her Mnohaia Lita, this was much to the surprise of those without any Ukrainian cultural roots. She noted that her next posting would be to Brasil, where this is also a large Diaspora community, and that she was looking forward to making contact with the people there.

A group of us asked Abi about the new Ambassador. Her reply was that he and his family were very anxious about coming to Kyiv, and looking forward to it.

Pawlina, oddly enough I'm not surprised that you don't remember the Ambassador after Derek Fraser, I can't remember his name either...But I do remember that one year we didn't have an official Canada Day Celebration at the Embassy, because he was not in the country.

Abi will truly be missed by the community here in Kyiv.

I recall the first Canadian Business Club meeting she attended when she was first posted in Kyiv. Unlike her predecessor's she greeted those present in Ukrainian, for which she made many friends, particularly amongst diaspora living here.

We will miss her, and we hope that she does somehow find the time to come back and visit.

Anonymous said...

I met Abi Dann here in Edmonton, she sat meeting with local Ukrainian community. We had felt in love to pani ambassador, she was even speaking Ukrainian. What a nice personality! I hope new ambassador to Ukraine is such kind of people too: open minded, modern, nice... See report in Ukrainian about that meeting http://ukietalks.com/site/news.php?extend.45

Pawlina said...

It's good to know that the outgoing ambassador had such a warm relationship with folks in Ukraine. Certainly speaks well of her.

Just that she wasn't any more visible here at home than Derek Fraser's successor was. I thought that Fraser set a very good example for Canadian ambassadors to work with the diaspora here at home. I hope our new ambassador will follow in his footsteps.

Nice touch with the send-off, typical Ukrainian graciousness. :-)

Pawlina said...

Stan, thanks for your comment and the link.

It raises another issue.. the language barrier. On the one hand, many Canadians who consider themselves Ukrainian (despite being Canadian born) can't speak or read Ukrainian. On the other hand, how does one strengthen the Ukrainian language without broadening the use of it?

Going bilingual presents its own set of challenges, not least of all doubling the workload of already overworked volunteers.

Bit of a catch-22...

Still, it would be nice if more of our ambassadors recognized those in the diaspora here at home who are interested in their ancestral homelands (I'm sure Ukrainians aren't unique in that). Fraser did a good job of it...at least in my experience. Hopefully more will follow his example in the future.

Anonymous said...

The title "Репортаж: Пані посол, яку всі полюбили" has been automatically translated from Ukrainian as "Reporting: A mrs. is an ambassador, which all came to love" :-) Not perfect, but not bad for those who are not being billingual. Just copy/paste into submition form at http://pereklad.online.ua

Pawlina said...

That's awesome, Stan, thanks! I will have to spend some time at that pereklad site. My only criticism would be that the Russian version is the default but then, I would complain about that, wouldn't I? But at least there is a Ukrainian version, which even a few years ago might not have existed. So that's a blessing.

Anyway, no need to apologize for the "imperfection" of the auto translation. As someone who has long struggled with the beautiful but challenging Ukrainian language, I have come to notice that listening closely to a Ukrainian-speaker who speaks "broken" English actually helps me to recognize (and remember!) grammatical structures and patterns in Ukrainian.

So my feeling is that if you approach any translation, by human or machine, with a genuine "feel" for the original language and perhaps a bit of extra time, a literally translated work can be as well understood as (if not better than) a polished translation by a professional translator.

Hats off to the creators of that service. And thanks again to you for sharing the info.

Anonymous said...

You are more then welcome, Pawlina. This translator is good enough one. At least on the industry quality level, I have never seen a quality translation from English to French for example.

Anonymous said...

Actually I've found better interface for you

http://www.trident.com.ua/eng/online.php

It is the same engine as Pereklad, but interface in English and Ukrainian and automatically recognized origin language!

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