Hector Cowan – Chernobyl

May 22, 2019January 31, 2026

Canadian diplomats carry out many different duties when serving abroad. CIHS member, Hector Cowan, was tasked with helping a group of Canadian students leave the disaster zone of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear plant explosion.

Foreign operations

Designated Classes
January 1, 2005January 25, 2026

A regulatory device to target humanitarian resettlement programs. Those who were around at the time might argue that the government’s decision in November 1978, to enact 3 separate classes to facilitate the selection of immigrants in refugee-like situations from Eastern Europe, Latin America and Indo China respectively, was directly attributable to an attack of Delhi…

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Foreign operations | Special movements

The ‘Canadian Caper’, with apologies to Ben Affleck
February 6, 2017January 25, 2026

Our late colleague, John Sheardown, and his wife, Zena, are featured in a column from the ‘Ottawa Citizen’ of January 19. Their role in sheltering US diplomats in Tehran is recounted in a story about the transfer of archival holdings to the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa.

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Foreign operations | Refugees | Southeast Asians | Special movements

A significant fiftieth anniversary
April 30, 2025January 27, 2026

CIHS offers its heartiest congratulations to the Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian communities in Canada on this important anniversary of the 1975 fall of Saigon. Since they first started to come to Canada and especially through Canada’s southeast Asian refugee program, they and their Canadian offspring have contributed to the fabric and success of this country….

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Foreign operations | Immigration | Research

Two sisters at the Canadian embassy in Paris
February 28, 2026March 1, 2026

The following article appeared in Bulletin 83 (December 2017). Elvire Westley and her sister, Jacqueline, both worked at the Canadian embassy in Paris following the end of hostilities in 1945. Ms. Westley also kindly provided a collection of photos that can be viewed on our site. The Canadian Immigration Museum at Pier 21 has also…

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Foreign operations | Refugees | Southeast Asians | Special movements

Resettlement of southeast Asian refugees (1979-1981)
January 16, 2026May 7, 2026

Interview with Brian Bell, Chief of Policy, Settlement Services, EIC (1979-1981) “[I]t was the people from top to bottom, and it was the times. The department had gone from … between the 60s to the 90s … from Manpower and Immigration with a very strong employment orientation, to the 80s where there was a real…

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Foreign operations

Officer recruitment in the 1950s
December 13, 2014January 25, 2026

In 1957, the Government launched a recruitment program to bring university students into the Foreign Service as immigration officers. A CIHS member who was recruited through the program has provided us with a copy of the recruitment brochure which outlines recruitment standards, the career path and working/living conditions. The brochure was printed by the Queen’s…

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