Raymond Chrétien

Former Canadian ambassador to France, United States, Belgium, Mexico and the Congo, Raymond Chrétien acts as strategic advisor at Fasken Martineau.

Raymond Chrétien has extensive knowledge and first-hand experience of senior government affairs, international financing agencies, complex issues in international negotiations and trade agreements. His experience will add further value to the advice given to Fasken Martineau clients doing business in Canada and Canadian businesses expanding in the United States, Mexico, Europe, Africa and developing nations.

He retired from the federal public service at the beginning of 2004 after almost 38 years in service.

As early as 1966, Raymond Chrétien joined the Legal Affairs Bureau in that Department and had key assignments in Ottawa with the Privy Council Office, the Treasury Board and the Canadian International Development Agency over the next twelve years. Outside Canada, he served at Canada's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York and the Canadian Embassies in Beirut and Paris.

In 1978, he was named Canada's Ambassador to Zaire with joint accreditation to Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo Republic. He returned to Ottawa in 1981 where he was respectively Policy Director for Industry, Investments & Competition (81/82), Assistant Under-Secretary of Manufacturing, Technology & Transportation (82/82) and Inspector General (83/85), in the Department of External Affairs.

In 1985, he was appointed Canada's Ambassador to Mexico. After completing his service, he left Mexico to be named Associate Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, the second highest position in the Department.

Raymond Chrétien served as Canada's Ambassador to Belgium and Luxemburg from 1991-1994 and, in January 1994, became Canada's eighteenth representative to the United States of America.

In 1996, he was appointed as the Secretary General of the United Nation's Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa to undertake an assessment of the crisis in the Great Lakes Region and to make recommendations to the Security Council in December 1996.

From 2000 to 2003, Raymond Chrétien was Ambassador of Canada to France.

Selected Experience

• Federal Negotiator for James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement Negotiations

News

• Raymond Chrétien’s analysis on the repercussions of the outcome of the U.S. presidential elections on Canada gets broad media attention
• U.S. Presidential Elections: Conference by Raymond Chrétien a huge success

Publications

• The New Relationship Agreement between Canada and the Crees of Quebec
• Le Canada dans le monde d'hier à aujourd'hui

Presentations

• Lunch Conference: Taking stock of the American election results
• 2008 Harvard Business School Centennial Seminar

Membership/Affiliations

• Member of the Trilateral Commission
• Chairman of the Board, Centre d'études et de recherches internationales de l'Université de Montréal (CÉRIUM)
• President of the Comité des gouverneurs des corridors de commerce Québec-Canada-États-Unis of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (FCCQ)
• Member of the Board of Directors of the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM)

Honours and Awards

• "Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur," high distinction awarded by France, 2003
• Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws, conferred by the State University of New York to highlight Mr. Chrétien’s outstanding support of the Canadian Studies activities at SUNY, 2002
• Doctorate in Law (honoris causa), conferred by the Université Laval of Québec City, 2001
• Degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa), conferred by Brock University in recognition of his contributions to Canadian public life and Canada's role in the international community, 1999
• Certificate of Honorary Membership of the Bar of the United States Court of Appeal for the Armed Forces, 1998
• Member of the Omicron Delta Kappa Society since 1996
• Awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest award the Mexican government has presented to a Canadian, 1989