“Logo courtesy of Sleeman/Unibroue”
E3161 Victoria Edwards has profiled 8816 Marius Grinius, one of fifteen Ex-Cadets who will raise money for the Danny McLeod Athletic Endowment Fund by paddling a voyageur canoe from Ottawa to Kingston this September, 2011. You can make a pledge or donation at www.rmcclubfoundation.ca.
“Having almost fully recovered from that first canoe adventure in 2000, I am ready for more paddling, great company and a great cause in support of RMC through the Danny McLeod Athletic Fund. In terms of the size of the student body, RMC is comparatively miniscule. But it has great spirit and always over-achieves in athletics, academics and Canadian leadership in all walks of life. One can never really pay back as much as one has received at RMC in terms of character-building, personal development, life-long skills and life-long friendships. I am proud to be an ex-cadet.”
Grinius “was delighted to be rapidly promoted from “navvie” in 2000 to “coffee boy, 2nd Class” for the 2011 adventure.” A `navvie` is traditionally a manual labourer working on major civil engineering, construction and landscaping projects such as canals, railroads, tunnels, cuttings and embankments. Although many navvies had to live in squalid temporary accommodations, the paddlers stayed overnight in cottages and private homes. While navvies were paid daily and their pay left little for good and drink; the paddlers ate and drank in nice restaurants along the route in 2000 and plan to do so again in 2011. A `coffee boy, 2nd Class`, traditionally a coffee boy (male minor), 2nd Class served as a domestic (waiter, steward) aboard ship or as a junior clerk or storekeeper in the ports. The paddlers will need coffee as they navigate their canoe from Ottawa; Manotick; North Grenville (Kemptville); Merrickville; Smiths Falls; Rideau Ferry; Perth; Portland; Westport; Newboro; Delta; Elgin ; Lyndhurst; Seeley’s Bay and Kingston.
Marius Grinius earned a BA in Economics from Royal Military College in 1971. He joined the foreign service in 1979, after 12 years of military service, and served abroad in Bangkok, Brussels (NATO) and Hanoi. From 1997 to 1999, he served as Ambassador to Vietnam. In Ottawa, he served in the Arms Control and Disarmament Division, and later, as the Director of the Asia Pacific South Relations Division and the Southeast Asia Division. In 1999, he transferred to the Privy Council Office (PCO) and served in the Social Development Policy Secretariat. He was then Director General in the Department of Western Economic Diversification and, in 2002, Director of Operations, Security and Intelligence Secretariat at PCO. He is married to Carolyn La Brash and the couple have two sons.
Marius Grinius serves as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations and to the Conference on Disarmament.with residence in Geneva. The Canadian Permanent Delegation to the United Nations in Geneva was first established in 1948, becoming a Permanent Mission in 1955. In 1970, the Mission took on activities relating to the Committee of the Conference on Disarmament. Following the GATT Kennedy round in 1967, the Mission also became responsible for monitoring international trade agreements. The Permanent Mission moved into its current premises at 5 Avenue de l’Ariana in 1999. The Canadian Permanent Mission to the World Trade Organization, the United Nations and the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva is Canada’s largest multilateral mission. http://www.international.gc.ca/genev/mission/marius_grinius.aspx
The Canadian Mission represents Canada at intergovernmental meetings associated with Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament (NACD) treaties. Canada has long promoted non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament (NACD) action aimed at promoting security and reducing the threats faced by Canadians and the international community. The principal NACD treaties include the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) and the Ottawa Convention on Landmines.
The Conference on Disarmament (CD), confirmed in 1979 as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community, was a result of the first Special Session on Disarmament of the United Nations General Assembly held in 1978. It succeeded other Geneva-based negotiating fora, such as the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament.
Our aim at e-Veritas is to conduct one-on-one interviews with all 15 participants (in no particular order).We have one left – he elusive Mike Jackson.