Paul Heinbecker

Paul Heinbecker (born 1941) is a retired Canadian career diplomat and the former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations.

Heinbecker is married to Ayşe Köymen. They have two daughters, Yasemin and Céline.

Education and diplomatic career

Heinbecker earned an honours B.A. from Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University) in 1965.

Heinbecker joined the Department of External Affairs immediately after graduation, and received postings abroad in Ankara, Stockholm, and Paris.

From 1989 to 1992, Heinbecker served as Chief Foreign Policy Advisor and speechwriter for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and as Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet for Foreign and Defence Policy.

In 1992, he was appointed ambassador to Germany. In the late 1990s, he organized the task force on the Kosovo conflict, and served as head of the Canadian delegation to the Climate Change Convention in Kyoto.

In 2000, Heinbecker was appointed as Ambassador to the United Nations. There he was a strong proponent of the International Criminal Court and argued for compromise in the lead-in to the 2003 attack on Iraq.

Current status

Heinbecker is presently resides in Waterloo, Ontario, where he is a "Distinguished Fellow, International Relations" at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the first director of the Centre for Global Relations, Governance, and Policy at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Heinbecker gained media attention in 2005, when he criticized fellow diplomat Franco Pillarella for his claim that he was unaware that Maher Arar was being tortured in Syria or that torture was practised there. ref|cbc20050616a

References

* [http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/06/16/arar050616.html Sharp rebuke for ambassador at Arar inquiry] , "CBC News", 16 June 2005