James Blair Seaborn

Seaborn, James Blair

James Blair Seaborn, public servant (b at Toronto, Ont 18 Mar 1924). Seaborn joined the Dept of External Affairs in 1948. In 1964-65, while the Canadian member of the International Commission for Supervision and Control (Vietnam), he visited Hanoi 5 times in an effort by Ottawa to establish communications between the US and North Vietnam. The "Seaborn Mission," undertaken with the active involvement of the US, was one of the most controversial aspects of Canadian diplomacy during the Vietnam War.

Seaborn was subsequently assistant deputy minister of consumer and corporate affairs 1970-74 and deputy minister of Environment Canada 1975-82. He was appointed Canadian chairman of the INTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION 1982 to 1985, when he became intelligence and security co-ordinator at the Privy Council Office. Since 1990 he has been Chairman of the Environmental Assessment Panel, Nuclear Fuel Waste.