Canada’s top foreign affairs official, Deputy Minister Marta Morgan, announced her retirement on Tuesday in the wake of various scandals affecting the Canadian diplomatic network.
“I am writing to advise you that after 35 years in the public service, I will be retiring at the end of August,” wrote Marta Morgan to employees of Global Affairs Canada.
In the email, dated Tuesday and obtained by The duty, she says she informed the clerk of her departure in the spring. The first female Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs highlights a number of accomplishments, such as the repatriation of “thousands of Canadians and Afghans when the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan” or Canada’s response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
The senior Canadian diplomat has been in the background of several recent scandals at Global Affairs Canada. For example, she would have been aware of the sending of her protocol officer, Yasemin Heinbecker, to a reception held at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa in June, as revealed by the daily. The Globe and Mail.
The same newspaper revealed in August that locally hired Ukrainians would have been abandoned by Canada at the time of the invasion. And this, even if sources of the Globe and Mail claim that these Ukrainian employees of Canada were “probably” on a list of Russian targets.
Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, repeated before a parliamentary committee last week that she was not aware of the existence of such a list, without refuting the rest of the information published.
“We are not aware of any list,” said Marta Morgan herself, invited to testify before the Foreign Affairs Committee.
In addition, Canada gave the green light to send six turbines to the Russian company Gazprom, a decision criticized by Ukraine and described as a “dangerous precedent” by the Ukrainian ambassador.
Ultimately, The duty revealed in December 2020 that Global Affairs Canada’s senior management was made up mostly of English-speaking leaders, including its four deputy ministers, including Marta Morgan. Experts and employees have criticized the fact that English-speaking managers without diplomatic experience have been placed in these positions.
In the senior public service, Marta Morgan spent the last ten years with Industry Canada, the Department of Finance Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and finally Global Affairs Canada.
In a statement sent to the To have to, Minister Mélanie Joly hailed “the great dedication to public service” of Marta Morgan. “As we go through an unprecedented period of instability around the world, his advice has been invaluable. I offer him and his family the best wishes for a beautiful and well-deserved retirement”.