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Q&A with Ken Taylor: Canada's former ambassador to Iran talks diplomacy, ISIS, Argo and attending Crescent Heights in the 1950s

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For the 100th graduating class of Crescent Heights, it must have seemed like history coming alive.

Ken Taylor, the former Canadian ambassador for Iran and centre of the so-called Canadian caper in 1979, gave a speech to the school’s graduating class at the Jubilee Auditorium last week. Born in Calgary, Taylor graduated from Crescent Heights in the 1950s. He played basketball and football for the school (“I wasn’t drafted,” he jokes) but yearned to travel the world. He got his wish, embarking on a globe-trotting career in the foreign service.

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As part of the Crescent Heights curriculum, students learn about Taylor’s heroic actions in 1979, when he helped conceal six American diplomats as revolution raged in the streets of Tehran.

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“So they are probably sick and tired of hearing about it,” says Taylor with his trademark grin, chatting with the Herald over coffee at a downtown hotel.

Well, probably not. It’s an amazing story, and one that tends to return Taylor to the spotlight every now and then. In 2010, he made headlines when Robert Wright’s book, Our Man In Tehran: Ken Taylor, The CIA and the Iran Hostage Crisis revealed for the first time that the mild-mannered diplomat was also gathering intelligence for the CIA during the crisis. He was back in the press again two years later, after Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning film about the hostage crisis, Argo, was first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. Supporters of Taylor were angered by what they saw as Affleck’s American-centric take on the crisis that minimized Taylor and Canada’s role. Affleck called Taylor and the two drafted a postscript that emphasized the Canadian Embassy’s crucial involvement.

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One year later, Taylor did press interviews and travelled the festival circuit to promote Our Man In Tehran, a Canadian documentary that sets the record straight about our embassy’s role.

Taylor, now 80, took some time to chat with the Herald when he was in town.

Q: By the time this story runs, you will have already given a speech to Crescent Heights graduating class of 2015. What is your impression of this new generation of Calgarians?

A: I think they are aware, they are interested, they are dedicated. A number of them come long ways to (attend) Crescent Heights. They are active in the athletic programs, they are active in the clubs, they are active in the community efforts to a far greater degree than I think we were aware of. Community activity when I went to high school essentially was non-existent. You went to school and you went home after school. The students here have interests outside, they are dedicated to projects. After seeing the students today, I feel pretty optimistic about what their contribution will be and how they will be able to cope.

Q: What are your own memories of Crescent Heights?

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A: The memories are good. Everything sort of worked out well. There wasn’t much trouble. It was very homogeneous. Everything was small and manageable. There were four high schools. So the basketball games, the football games all took place at Mewata Stadium. We were playing the same people: ‘Who are you playing? Central this time? Or Western?’ Most of the graduates, if they went to university, went to the University of Alberta. There was no University of Calgary, no University of Lethbridge, no SAIT. Life was much simpler. You graduated high school and you went to university or you didn’t. But if you went to university, most everybody went to U of A. To sum it up, it was the simplicity of Calgary that made it attractive.

Q: So you obviously went against the grain back then. What inspired you to go to the University of Toronto and then the University of California and eventually join the foreign service?

A: At the University of Toronto, you didn’t know a soul. You were just lost in the middle of it and then you found your way. I viewed that as something I would like to pursue. That’s why I went to California, I guess. It was totally different and then the foreign service, where it was a different country every four or five years. I liked the unsettled aspect of it, the unpredictability. Calgary was a frontier city. It was new. Some of the teachers and staff suggested that this isn’t the end, graduating from Crescent Heights in Calgary: ‘Go out and explore. Why not go somewhere else?’ And once it started, it continued to appeal.

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Q: When talking about the Iranian Revolution, you said the western world misjudged the power of the church in 1979. It took everyone by surprise. We hear that same sense of surprise about the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS) in the past few years. Do you see parallels?

A: Iran was a revolution. It really changed the way of thinking worldwide. If the French Revolution worked for equality, the Russian Revolution worked for socialism, the Iranian Revolution set up an entirely new structure of government that wasn’t based on any Western ideology. It was based on Islam. It hadn’t happened before except with the (Ottoman Empire). So, the Iranian situation was a revolution. This group of ISIS wants a territory they can call their own, but there’s no ideology. It’s ‘this is our interpretation of the Islamic faith back to the basics.’ And that’s how they justify their being. This is going to go on for generations. The idea that we are going to eradicate ISIS? Forget it. It’s not going to go away.

Q: If they don’t have an ideology, what do you think makes ISIS appealing to young people, including some in the West?

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A: They claim it is ideologically based. ISIS claims they are going back to the original scriptures, the original text, not the modification that has been going on since, what, 637? They say they are authentic, that this is what Islam is all about. It’s simple, it’s straightforward and it’s immediately conclusive. You take a territory and you are either with us or against us. And if you’re against us you get your head chopped off or you’re raped and shot. Simple and stark. It’s cleansing, there’s’s a purity. You are serving Muhammed and you are serving the faith and you are going to create your own country. The concern of them coming back is there. But at the same time, the rigours of the leaders is that you are there to give your life, you are there for a purpose. The young people going there, I’m not sure what they expect. They are going to get killed. And if they decide to come back, ISIS might say ‘No, you’re not going back. You’re here to fight with us. Unlike al Qaeda, we’re not interested in doing something in the U.S., we’re interested in earmarking our own territory. So you stay here with your life.’ Maybe it appeals to them. There’s a rudimentary understanding of Islam. A total frustration thwarting their own ambitions where they are. A dull existence, an existence where they don’t fundamentally believe in something. This gives them — although you can hardly use that word — it gives them a faith.

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Q: When John Baird left his post as Foreign Minister earlier this year, at least one newspaper columnist suggested he was not very well liked among Canada’s diplomats due to his lack of, well, diplomacy. Is it a different world out there for Canadian diplomats?

A: I’m not entirely certain I want to go into a political debate here. But diplomacy, to a large extent, is about reaching an accommodation with your adversary. So who is one of the key players in the Middle East? Iran. What do we do? Close our embassy because we don’t like them. You can’t run diplomacy on the basis of ‘I don’t like those people, I don’t understand them’ and walk away. When you don’t like them and see them as part of the big game, you work even harder.

Q: Would you recommend the foreign service to young people now?

A: Under the current situation, I don’t think diplomats have the same degree of liberty and freedom of expression as before. And maybe you could say ‘Well, so what? That’s not their business. The government sets the policy.’ I would say in 25 years abroad, I don’t remember once from Ottawa ever hearing about what I should say. Because, I said maybe some foolish things, but you learn instinctively that you don’t contradict your government.

Q: You were in the news quite a bit when Argo came out. Is that water under the bridge now? If it came on TV, could you watch it and simply be entertained and not think about what’s been left out?

A: (laughing) I think Argo is ingrained on my mind, I don’t need to see it again. When I saw it with Ben Affleck, it entered there and it’s wired into my brain. It served a purpose, particularly in the U.S. And, because a lot of Canadians were so angry, it put a focus back on the Canadian endeavour.

(This interview has been edited for space).

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