Guy Saint-Jacques is a Canadian retired diplomat who served as Canada's ambassador to China from 26 September 2012 until 9 October 2016.

Career

St Jacques joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1977. St Jacques served in New York City, Mexico City, Kinshasa, Hong Kong, Washington and London. St Jacques was appointed Ambassador for Climate Change in 2010. St Jacques was appointed to Beijing by John Baird in September 2012, and presented his credentials to

Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, an ...

. He liaised in Beijing extensively with

Cong Peiwu Cong Peiwu (; born May 1967) is a Chinese diplomat serving as Chinese Ambassador to Canada . Biography Cong once served as counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Britain. In 2014, he became head of the Department of North American and Oceanian Af ...

, while the latter was Director-General of the Chinese Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs. St Jacques retired after 30 years of service in October 2016, while

Stephane Dion Stephane may refer to: * Stéphane Stéphane is a male French given name an equivalent of Stephen/Steven. Notable people with this given name include: * Stéphane Adam (born 1969), French footballer *Stéphane Agbre Dasse (born 1989), Burkinabé f ...

was Minister of Foreign Affairs and just short of one year after the Trudeau government came to power.

Post-retirement

St Jacques made the headlines in July 2019, when reports emerged that someone at the PMO had convinced Paul Thoppil, ADM for Asia-Pacific at Global Affairs Canada, to called him to ask for him not to comment on China in the media. In response, St Jacques suggested the PMO should call him directly if it has a problem with what he is saying. It was also reported that the PMO had employed similar tactics with another Ambassador, David Mulroney. Following the reports, Global Affairs Minister, Chrystia Freeland, called St Jacques privately to apologize, while Liberal MPs quashed a motion for an investigation by a Parliamentary subcommittee into the affair. The treatment of the two Ambassadors was criticized by former diplomat Colin Robertson, who said, "The federal government looks committed to hearing no evil, seeing no evil and doing nothing on the China file, for fear of further upsetting Beijing. That is no policy for Canada."

Positions

In March 2019, St Jacques suggested that, in retaliation for China's suspension of canola imports from Canada, that Canada could expel Chinese athletes who were training in Canada for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games and could bring Beijing before the UN Security Council where it could level accusations of

bad faith Bad faith (Latin: ''mala fides'') is a sustained form of deception which consists of entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings while acting as if influenced by another."of two hearts ... a sustained form of deception whic ...

. He also suggested bringing the Chinese to the WTO process. In early May 2020, St Jacques expressed his support for Canada taking refugees from Hong Kong in light of the police crackdown on 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Jacques, Guy Living people Ambassadors of Canada to China Year of birth missing (living people)