An interview with Joe Bissett

In 1956, James “Joe” Bissett was one of the first recipients of a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Carleton University.

CIHS member Doug Dunnington recently located this video of Carleton University’s 2024 interview with Joe, who is a CIHS member emeritus. Carleton has established the Bissett Alumni Award for Distinctive Contributions to the Public Sector, a reflection of the massive contribution that he has made to Canada’s public service.

CIHS members and readers of the CIHS Bulletin will enjoy Joe’s recollections of his long and distinguished career. Joe began his university studies at the University of Winnipeg and took the opportunity to move to Ottawa and to attend Carleton. He then went on to have many significant accomplishments in assignments at immigration headquarters and abroad, including being the head of the immigration foreign service and the Assistant Undersecretary of State for Social Affairs. He also worked at the political level in bringing the 1976 Immigration Act to fruition, and served as Canada’s ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago and, later, as Canada’s ambassador to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania. In the 1990s, he also worked for the International Organization for Migration as the head of its Moscow office.