A career diplomat, Canadian Ambassador to Thailand Donica Pottie has felt right at home in her host country since arriving last year.
She has 25 years' foreign service experience under her belt. Prior foreign postings include Cambodia, Jordan and China. Last July, she was nominated Canada's ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand, Kingdom of Cambodia and Lao People's Democratic Republic.
Since then the veteran diplomat has managed to foster stronger bilateral ties between both Thailand and Canada, deepen their networking and build a better understanding of how both countries can work on various levels.
Her Excellency remarked: "I love being here because I think it is a privilege; people have been very welcoming, my colleagues in the diplomat corps have been exceptional. The Thai government, NGOs, all have been very willing to provide me with information related to a number of issues including LGBT and human-rights issues, and more.
"The year I have been here has coincided with the death of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, which has been a sad and emotional period for the country. We too at the Canadian embassy feel the death of the king, and have been respectful of that at all times."
Passionate about a number of issues, including cancer research, she is particularly looking forward to taking part in the 9th Care for Cancer charity fun run on Nov 18, organised by the Thai Red Cross Society, with the support of the Canadian embassy and Thai-Canadian Chamber of Commerce as well as Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel. The fun run will raise funds for cancer research.
Ambassador Pottie said that in the past Canada and Thailand have worked closely in the multilateral arena on such issues as advancing human-security objectives. More recently, the two nations have become more like-minded on issues relating to women, peace, development, supporting and improving peacekeeping effectiveness and stopping sexual exploitation of women by peacekeepers themselves.
She said last year that Justin Trudeau, prime minster of Canada, and then-US president Barack Obama co-hosted the UN Summit on refugees, wherein Thai Prime Minster Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha made "very strong and very welcomed announcements about Thailand's intent when it came to refugees and migrants, including the intent to create a domestic process to do a refugee determination inside Thailand".
Canada is also eager to work with Asean, she continued, saying a feasibility study to determine whether a Canada/Asean free-trade agreement can be concluded, which would usher in new opportunities for two-way trade and investment, by removing some of the barriers that exist on both sides to further cement trade relations within the region.
Ambassador Pottie said that as a Canadian diplomat one constantly looks for areas where he or she can make a difference on issues important to Canada.
Prime minster Trudeau is very clearly working to advance the human rights and protection of the LGBT people, she continued. He is doing it domestically in Canada, for example. Canadian passports have just started to allow non-gender-binary individuals to claim gender X instead of having to identify as male or female. He has also marched in a handful of pride parades, including with his children, which speaks a lot about where he stands on the issue.
The LGBT issue is close to her heart on two levels: as a human-rights advocate and as the mother of a gay daughter. On her decision to disclose this personal information, she remarked: "Here in Thailand, I chose to make my personal story part of how I could try to advance discussion around LGBT rights and tolerance. This was a personal choice and that of my daughter. I would never have done anything in the public arena if she was not comfortable with it. For her it was very meaningful that I speak publicly about her being an LGBT youth.
"She is 17 and just starting university. She came out when she was 14. For her, my speaking about her openly symbolised an additional level of acceptance of who she was."
A couple weeks after arriving in Thailand, Ambassador Pottie was invited to speak at the Salzburg Global Seminar LGBT Forum, "The Many Faces Of LGBT Inclusion", in Chiang Rai, in October last year. She was one among a handful of ambassadors that were invited.
It was here she decided to share that she's the mother of a gay daughter.
"In the room were some young LGBT people, older than my daughter but still young, in their 20s, and I looked at them and thought, 'How do I support them if I am at all shy or hesitant to talk about my own child?'. And in that way I could also speak about where parents can do better. Some things, I could have done better.
"I did not spend a lot of time preparing. I knew my daughter was gay and that I was meeting a group of LGBT people. I felt that if I would not speak my own truth, then it was an unfair exchange with the group. I would be talking about how they deserve their rights and how Canada is committed to LGBT rights and yet I would essentially be saying I felt embarrassed or distressed because my daughter was part of that group of individuals."
Since then, the most significant move she has made in supporting LGBT rights was to speak on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (Idahot), held earlier this year at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, as well as International Women's Day. She also discussed Canada's commitment to advancing LGBT rights and inclusion at home and abroad with a group of LGBT activists from around the world, including Danny Ramadan, a Syrian refugee from Canada.
Here the Canadian ambassador touched on the importance of working collaboratively to advance LGBT rights in the region by supporting the advocacy work of local civil society. Also attending the Salzburg Global Forum were a group of inspiring LGBT activists from Canada, Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR working to strengthen LGBT inclusion in their countries.
