Talking Point The role of the Canadian Embassy in Prague in the "Age of Normalisation"
This month the Canadian Ambassador to Prague Michael Calcott hosted a panel discussion at the Canadian residence recalling cooperation between Czech dissidents and Canadian officials in the years leading up to the fall of communism. During the mid-1980s, the end of the period known as the Normalisation, key officials at the embassy went out on a limb, risking careers to help dissidents and their cause, even going so far as to smuggle dissident writing, even going so far as to smuggle dissident writing (Samizdat) out of the country. Documents included everything from personal correspondence to political and philosophical tracts to novels and plays, authored by members of the dissident movement that included Vaclav Havel.
Canadian Embassy in Prague
Back
