James Bartleman - Foreign Service Career

Foreign Service Career

Prior to taking on the role of Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Bartleman had a distinguished career of more than 35 years in the Canadian foreign service. He began his diplomatic career in what was then known as the Department of External Affairs (now the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) in 1967. In 1972 he was given the task of opening Canada’s first diplomatic mission in the newly independent People’s Republic of Bangladesh . He was then made Canada's Ambassador to Cuba (Havana) from 1981 to 1983. Upon his return from Cuba, he was appointed as director of security and intelligence for the Department of External Affairs. After this, Bartleman served as High Commissioner to Cyprus and Ambassador to Israel (Tel Aviv) simultaneously from 1986 to 1990. From the dual posting he moved to post of Canadian Ambassador to the North Atlantic Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium from 1990 to 1994. He was moved from NATO to the Commonwealth of Nations positions as High Commissioner to South Africa (Pretoria) in 1998-1999 and to Australia (Canberra) in 1999-2000. Finally, he was transferred back to Europe to serve as Ambassador to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium from 2000 to 2002.

Bartleman was director of security and intelligence for the Department of External Affairs at the time of the Air India Bombing. On 3 May 2007, he testified at the Air India Inquiry that he had presented an intelligence document to the RCMP warning of a possible attack days prior to the bombing. Bob Rae later admitted that he never bothered to interview Bartleman, the former head of intelligence for Foreign Affairs Canada while investigating the Air India bombing.