User:CiaraPhillips/Michael B. Phillips

Michael B. Phillips

Michael Burke Phillips QC (born 1939, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) is a former Canadian diplomat who was Canadian Consul General in New York and Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, Sweden and the Baltic Republics.

Education and diplomatic career
Phillips received a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB 1964) from the University of Saskatchewan. After completing his BA Phillips worked in the Head Office of the National Federation of Canadian University Students in Ottawa (1960 -61) and served on an international student project in Concepcion, Chile. He returned to law school in Saskatoon in 1961, complete in 1964 and then articled with the Saskatoon Law Firm Wedge, McKercher, McKercher and Purdie. He was called to the Saskatchewan Bar in 1965.

Phillips joined the Department of External Affairs in Ottawa in 1965. He served in: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (with a dual accreditation to Somalia) (1966-69); Dublin, Ireland (1972-74); and Nairobi, Kenya (with a dual accreditation to Uganda) (1977-80). He acted as Advisor to the Canadian Observer in the Commonwealth Observer Group in Zimbabwe-Rhodesia during the pre-independence elections in 1980.

From 1980 to 1983 Phillips served in Ottawa as Associate Director General of the Legal Bureau and then as Senior Departmental Assistant to the Secretary of State for External Affairs (Mark MacGuigan and Allan MacEachen). In 1982 he was appointed a Queen’s Counsel by the Canadian Federal Government.

Posted to the Canadian High Commission, London, 1983 to 1988, as Minister (Political and Public Affairs). Represented Canada on the International Fund for Ireland 1986 to 1988.

Phillips was twice an Assistant Deputy Minister (USA Relations) in Ottawa (1988-91, 1995-6). He was on the founding Board of Directors of Fulbright Canada (1990).

Appointed Canadian Ambassador to Ireland (1996 to 1998).

Appointed Canadian Consul General in New York and Canadian Commissioer to Bermuda (1998 to 2002).

Phillips retired from the Foreign Service in 2002. He is married to Oonagh McGinley. They have two children, Ciara Phillips and Conor Phillips.