Organization of American States
(E-176/01) NEW ENVOY TO OAS STRESSES CANADA'S ACTIVE HEMISPEHRIC AGENDA
Ambassador Paul Durand, the new Permanent Representative of Canada to the Organization of American States (OAS), presented credentials today, reassuring Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi of Canada's continued active agenda concerning Western Hemisphere issues. In remarks following the brief ceremony, the Ambassador restated the Canadian commitment to the Inter-American Democratic Charter which the OAS member states are expected to adopt at a special General Assembly session being convened in Peru next September 10 and 11. He said the proposed hemispheric Democracy Charter "was the first and most important mandate we received from the Quebec Summit, and its one that we'll have to complete by the 10th of September in Lima." He added that it "will be a very powerful political statement about what democracy means for the Hemisphere, for all the nations of the Americas." Accepting Durand's accreditation letters on behalf of the Secretary General, Ambassador Einaudi commended Canada's role in the OAS. "The permanent circumstances of Canada's presence have been extremely salutary here in this Organization," declared Einaudi. Prior to this assignment, Durand was Canada's Ambassador to Chile (2000/2001) and Director General for Latin America and the Caribbean in the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (1995/2000). From 1992 to 1995, Durand was Ambassador to Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. He was also at one time—from 1985 to 1989—a program director with the Canadian International Development Agency.
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