Keynote Address: Mr. Paul Heinbecker

Mr. Heinbecker was born in Kitchener, Ontario and attended Sir Wilfrid Laurier University where he graduated with honours in English and History. Mr. Heinbecker joined the Foreign Service in 1965 and his career has been marked by service at the highest levels and on the most important issues of the day. He has served in a variety of posts, including Chairman of the Department's Policy Development Secretariat, Chief Foreign Policy Advisor and speech writer to the then Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon Brian Mulroney, Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet for Foreign and Defence Policy, and Assistant Deputy Minister, Global and Security Policy. Mr. Heinbecker has excelled in some of the most demanding and prestigious positions in the Canadian Foreign Service, including Minister in Washington DC from 1985 to 1989, Ambassador to Germany from 1992 to 1996, and from 2000 to 2004, as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Natons in New York.

A staunch defender of the effectiveness and relevance of the United Nations, Mr. Heinbecker is a distinguished diplomat who has represented Canada on the United Nations Security Council and as a member of the delegation that represented Canada at the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, in 2001.

Since January 2004, Mr. Heinbecker holds joint appointments with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and with the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) which is currently hosted by Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

UNA-Canada is honoured to be able to welcome Mr. Heinbecker as Keynote Speaker for CANIMUN 2004.