Browse "Civil Servants"

Frederick Augustus Dixon, playwright, journalist, civil servant (b at London, Eng 7 May 1843; d at Ottawa 12 Jan 1919). Educated at King's School, Canterbury, he came to Canada in the 1870s and worked as a journalist in Toronto.

​Ernest Adolphe Côté, MBE, soldier, civil servant and diplomat (born 12 June 1913 in Edmonton, Alberta; died 25 February 2015 in Ottawa, Ontario).

Albert Jackson, letter carrier (born c. 1857–58 in Delaware; died 14 January 1918 in Toronto , ON). Albert Jackson is thought to be the first Black letter carrier in Canada (see Postal System). Jackson was born into enslavement in the United States, and escaped to Canada with his mother and siblings when he was a toddler in 1858. In 1882, Jackson was hired as a letter carrier in Toronto, but his co-workers refused to train him on the job. While his story was debated in the press for weeks, the Black community in Toronto organized in support of Jackson, meeting with Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald to have Jackson reinstated. Jackson returned to his post days later and served as a letter carrier for almost 36 years.

George Alexander Elliott, economist, professor, civil servant (b at Napier, Ont 22 July 1901).

Lincoln MacCauley Alexander, CC, OOnt, QC, lieutenant-governor of Ontario 1985–91, member of Parliament 1968–80, lawyer, public servant (born 21 January 1922 in Toronto, ON; died 19 October 2012 in Hamilton, ON). Alexander was the first Black Canadian member of Parliament (1968), Cabinet minister (1979) and lieutenant-governor (Ontario, 1985). In recognition of his many important accomplishments, 21 January has been celebrated as Lincoln Alexander Day across Canada since 2015.

Lampman began as a writer in the pages of his college magazine, Rouge et Noir, graduating to the more prestigious pages of The Week, and winning an audience in the major American magazines of the day such as Atlantic Monthly, Harper's and Scribner's.

Throughout the controversies that arose over the funding and regulation of the new medium of television, Dunton was a persuasive defender of the corporation's independence and a strong advocate of the need to fund publicly a television system that would be of great national benefit.

Arthur Thomas Bushby. Amateur musician, civil servant, b London 2 Mar 1835, d New Westminster, BC, 18 May 1875. Bushby's 1856 diary shows that he played violin and sang in musical societies in London. He spent the summer of 1856 in Italy, studying voice, piano, and Italian.

Arthur (Emil) Semple. Flutist, conductor, civil servant, b Toronto 9 Mar 1876, d there 9 Feb 1963; Fellow Toronto College of Music, LRAM, LAB, before 1912; B MUS (Toronto) 1915.

Crown attorneys are agents of either the ATTORNEY GENERAL for Canada or the attorneys general for the provinces and territories, who respectively are the chief legal officers for the federal, provincial and territorial governments.

Bernard Ostry, public servant (b at Wadena, Sask 10 Jun 1927). After studying history at U of Man, Ostry launched an academic career at the universities of London and Birmingham in England. There, in collaboration with H.S. Ferns, he published The Age of Mackenzie King: The Rise of the Leader (1955; 2nd ed, 1976), a critical and controversial study of the former prime minister.

Geraldine Van Bibber (née Kelly), public servant, businesswoman and commissioner of Yukon (b at Dawson, YT 3 July 1951). Geraldine Van Bibber was born and raised in DAWSON, YT, and is of GWICH'IN and Irish descent.

Jacques Brossard, public servant, writer (b at Montréal 24 Apr 1933). He holds a BA (1952) from Collège Sainte-Marie, a L ès L (1955) from Université de Montréal and a social science degree (1957) from Oxford. Admitted to the bar (1956), he joined the foreign service in 1957.

Duncan Campbell Scott, poet, writer, civil servant (born 2 August 1862 in Ottawa, ON; died 19 December 1947 in Ottawa, ON). Scott’s complicated legacy encompasses both his work as an acclaimed poet and his role as a controversial public servant. Considered one of the “poets of the Confederation” — a group of English-language poets whose work laid the foundations for a tradition of Canadian poetry — his intense works made use of precise imagery and transitioned smoothly between traditional and modern styles. However, his literary work has arguably been overshadowed by his role as the deputy superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs. He enforced and expanded residential schools, failed to respond to a tuberculosis epidemic and oversaw a treaty process that many claim robbed Indigenous peoples of land and rights. His oft-quoted goal to “get rid of the Indian problem” became, for many, characteristic of the federal government’s treatment of Indigenous peoples.

Between the 1950s and 1990s, the Canadian government responded to national security concerns generated by Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union by spying on, exposing and removing suspected LGBTQ individuals from the federal public service. They were cast as social and political subversives and seen as targets for blackmail by communist regimes seeking classified government information. These characterizations were justified by arguments that people who engaged in same-sex relations suffered from a “character weakness” and had something to hide because their sexuality was not only considered a taboo but, under certain circumstances, was illegal. As a result, the RCMP investigated large numbers of people, many of whom were fired, demoted or forced to resign — even if they had no access to security information. These measures were kept out of public view to prevent scandal and to keep counter-espionage operations under wraps.

Gerald Lewis Caplan, political administrator, historian (b at Toronto 1938).

Charles Mair, writer, civil servant (b at Lanark, UC 21 Sept 1838; d at Victoria 7 July 1927).

The Chief Electoral Officer oversees Elections Canada, the non-partisan agency that administers Canada’s federal elections and referendums.

Clifford Clark, civil servant (b at Martintown, Ont 18 Apr 1889; d at Chicago 27 Dec 1952). Clark attended Queen's and Harvard before returning to Queen's as a lecturer in 1915, where he helped establish banking and commerce courses. In 1923 he joined the American investment firm of S.W.

A Commissioner for Oaths is any person over 18 years of age commissioned by a lieutenant-governor to administer oaths and take affidavits.