The upper level of the Historical Museum has undergone a major change, with new exhibits replacing the previous ones. But the newest of these exhibits is one which I think deserves especial attention.
I was born into, and grew up, in a world which was dominated by men. Our Member of Parliament, our Member of the Legislature, and our mayor were all men. Most of the doctors, clergy, and business owners were men. We heard mostly men’s voices on the radio and, later, when television gained prominence, most of the announcers were male. Of course, as our teachers (mostly women in the elementary years) taught us, there is always an exception which proves the rule. For example, we had one woman city councillor (referred to as aldermen in those days – obviously because the majority were men), Marion Sherman. As we were taught, there is an exception which proves the rule.
Looking back, our early diplomats were men. Belgium was represented in Prince Albert by their consul, Choiseul de la Gorgendiere. Thomas Clayton Davis, one time mayor of the city and our representative in the Legislative Assembly, became High Commissioner to Australia and, later, ambassador to Japan, China, and Germany. Bruce Rankin, whose family had a cottage at Round Lake in the Briarlea district, was a career diplomat, serving in both China and Japan. So, it was a moment of enlightenment when I discovered that another career diplomat, this time a woman, had a strong connection to Prince Albert.
Deborah Chatsis was born December 20th, 1961, in Chilliwack, British Columbia to First Nations parents. Her father, Donald, was from Poundmaker First Nation, and her mother, Noreen, was a member of Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation. As her father was a member of the Canadian Military, he had spent some time in Germany before ending up in Chilliwack where he met her mother. After Deborah’s birth, the family moved to the interior of British Columbia before returning to Saskatchewan when Deborah was ten years old. They lived in Battleford for a short period of time prior to moving to Prince Albert, a community which she found at the time, unlike now, to be fairly homogenous.
Deborah proved to be an intelligent and ambitious individual, and proved to be unafraid of challenges, including growing up in an area of the city known for poverty and racism. At the time, there weren’t many Indigenous students in the schools she attended. After completing high school, she went on to the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1983 and a further Bachelor of Law in 1986.
With the combination of an engineering and a law degree, Deborah appeared to be headed towards a legal career in the area of intellectual property, which she did for a short time. But she really wanted to travel and, perhaps, work overseas. She put this desire down to the fact that she had always loved her father’s trunk full of souvenirs from his time with the military. As a result, she took the foreign service exam and entered that world in 1989.
She worked as a visa officer for four years overseas, two and a half in Beijing, another year in Bogota, and under a year in Miami, Florida. After that, she joined the legal bureau of the department (then known as the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) in Ottawa. While back in Ottawa she completed her Masters of Law from the University of Ottawa, specialising in international law. She spent four years there in what is now known as the United Nations law area, doing international humanitarian law and human rights law. After that she went to Geneva for four years, working at Canada’s Mission to the UN in the area of human rights and helping to negotiate the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, as well as the establishment of a permanent UN Forum for Indigenous People. In 2002, she was transferred to Canada’s Mission to the United Nations in New York. Here she was elected as chair of the UN committee managing the Special Court to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity which had occurred in Sierra Leone.
In 2006, Deborah was selected for the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. There she obtained a Masters in Public Administration.
From 2010 to 2013, Deborah was Canada’s Head of Mission to Viet Nam, a country she grew to love. This was the first time an Indigenous woman had been appointed as an ambassador. In 2015, after having received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Saskatchewan, Deborah became Canada’s Ambassador to Guatemala and our High Commissioner to Belize. Here she felt a strong kinship with the Indigenous people, who struggled with such issues as oppression and poverty. She was able to focus on an Indigenous legal system as part of their proposed concept to amend the country’s constitution.
Due to ill health, Deborah resigned her posting in 2018, not before having contributed much to the world. From her involvement in the development of the international treaty to ban land mines to her contributions to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Deborah displayed her heart for Indigenous peoples and their issues, including women’s rights. As a result, she was honoured as a recipient of the Order of Canada on November 16th, 2021, and invested on April 22nd, 2022 by the first Indigenous Governor General, Mary Simon. Both intelligent and accomplished women, they shared tea and cookies, and talked about the important things in life, such as berry picking.
Deborah Chatsis died on June 9th, 2022.
I highly recommend that you visit the Prince Albert Historical Museum to view the exhibit which recognises this fine woman who contributed so much so selflessly to her country and the entire world.
fgpayton@sasktel.net
