Roger Turenne

Born in Manitoba, Roger Turenne served for 14 years as a Foreign Service Officer in Canada’s External Affairs department, with assignments in Ottawa, in Paris as Deputy Permanent Delegate of Canada to UNESCO, and in Kinshasa and Stockholm where he headed the political sections of the Canadian embassies in the those countries.

He returned to Manitoba in 1981 to become Senior Adviser on French language services to the Premiers of Manitoba, and was the architect of the language policies of both the Pawley and the Filmon administrations. Since 1991, he has volunteered his time with conservation groups in Manitoba, and has been a driving force in the move to establish protected areas in the Interlake region of the province.

He is the author of a book on the French community in Manitoba, entitled “Mon pays noir sur blanc, regards sur le Manitoba francais”, and has written numerous magazine and newspaper articles, in both English and French, on conservation and political issues in Manitoba. He has also been a political analyst for Radio-Canada. With a passion for photography and wilderness travel, he has led numerous nature-related trips from Alaska to Florida.

Bit Player on Big Stages:
A Journey Through Diplomacy, Advocacy,
and Cultural Survival

From the heart of small-town Saint-Pierre-Jolys to the global corridors of diplomacy, Bit Player on Big Stages chronicles Roger Turenne’s extraordinary journey of public service, cultural advocacy, and environmental activism.

“Roger Turenne served his community, his province and his country with insight and determination. A true public servant in the very best sense of that phrase.”

– Michael Decter, Former Cabinet Secretary, Government of Manitoba, and Former Deputy Minister of Health, Ontario

“Roger Turenne may refer to himself as a bit player, but his fascinating memoir attests to a life lived full of purpose. As readers will see, as a diplomat, as an advocate for Franco-Manitobans, and as an environmental activist, Turenne traversed different worlds, leaving his own indelible impact along the way.”

– Asa McKercher, PhD, St. Francis Xavier University

“Roger Turenne’s bracing memoir reads almost like a history of modern Canada. Beginning with his Franco-Manitoban upbringing, to diplomatic service amidst the roil of 1970s’ Africa, to the language and environmental politics of the 1980s and well beyond, Bit Player on Big Stages tells the fascinating story of a dedicated but independently-minded Canadian public servant. Turenne’s life is both impressively broad and highly revealing of the nature of the country he gratefully calls home.”

– C. Brad Faught, PhD, Tyndale University, Toronto, and Senior Fellow, Massey College, University of Toronto. Author of Cairo 1921: Ten Days that Made the Middle East.