Keith Spicer
Encyclopedia
Keith Spicer is a Canadian academic, public servant, journalist and writer.

Between 1970 and 1977, Spicer was the first Commissioner of Official Languages
Commissioner of Official Languages
A Commissioner of Official Languages is an official head of an office that is responsible for dealing with matters regarding a country's policy towards its Official Languages...

 of Canada. Appointed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...

, he reported directly to Parliament as a non-partisan officer of Parliament. As national “language ombudsman,” his mandate was to uphold French and English language rights in all federal institutions under the 1969 Official Languages Act. (Previously, Canada’s federal government operated predominantly in English). He promoted the use of English and French as languages of both service and work, and he promoted the teaching of “French immersion” in English-language schools across Canada as a long-term support for an officially bilingual Canada.

During his tenure as commissioner, Spicer dealt with many tensions between English- and French-speaking Canada -- notably a potentially nation-breaking 1976 crisis when many English-Canadian pilots threatened to block the Montreal Olympics over the use of French in air traffic control. His approach was essentially diplomatic, but he used a mixture of threatened public denunciation and trademark humor to promote solutions.

From 1989 to 1996 Spicer was the chairman of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. [1] During his tenure, he promoted Canadian TV programming, support for artists, respect for consumers, and telephone competition. He led a four-year campaign to reduce gratuitous TV violence aimed at children under 12.

In November 1990, in the midst of the national unity crisis caused by the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord
Meech Lake Accord
The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and ten provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982 Canadian Constitution and increase...

 several months earlier, he took an eight-month leave from his duties at the CRTC at the request of then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...

 to chair the "Citizens' Forum on Canada's Future." This controversial mass consultation was "a dialogue and discussion with and among Canadians ... to discuss the values and characteristics fundamental to the well-being of Canada."[2] The Forum's report, popularly referred to as the "Spicer Report," was published as a "Report to the People and Government of Canada" in June 1991.

Before and between government jobs, Spicer worked as a broadcaster in both English and French. From 1966 to 1969 he wrote editorials and features for The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...

. He served as editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Citizen
The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...

 from 1985 to 1989.[1]

From 1996 to 2000, Spicer worked for Ernst & Young Canada in Paris, promoting the Internet to a then-skeptical French establishment. He also taught an Internet seminar at the Sorbonne during that time.

From 2000 to 2007, Spicer was the founding director of the Institute for Media, Peace and Security at the UN-launched University for Peace in Costa Rica. There he created a curriculum and supervised development of key courses, including ones on the role of media before, during after conflict; media and genocide; media battlefield ethics; women journalists in war zones; and the roles of Israeli and Palestinian media in Middle East politics.

Since 1996, he has lived in Paris where he continues writing newspaper columns. Spicer has also written seven books:

A Samaritan State? External Aid in Canada's Foreign Policy (1966)

Cher Péquiste ... et néanmoins ami (1980)

Winging It (1981)

Think on Your Feet (1986)

Life Sentences (2005)

Paris Passions (2009)

Sitting on Bayonets: America’s Endless War on Terror and The Paths to Peace (2011)

Achievements and awards

Spicer is an Officer of the Order of Canada (O.C.) and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Ottawa, Glendon College of York University, and Laurentian University.

External links

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