From: John Kluver
 

Always with Communications / Industry (just changes in its’ name) began my career back in April 1973 and Retired January 2009.  Started my career in the Department of Operational Support (DOS) under Garth Roberts and Gerry Smith as a design draftsman, then over to Department Automated Applications (DAA) Micheline Chase, Ken Holt, Walter Macklon, Maurice Drew and Octave Belanger in the Operations side of our department and once having graduated from Algonquin College as an Electronic Engineering Technologist moved to the EL category; and then after some 25 years moved to Regulatory Policy and Michel Milot in Emergency Telecoms where I ended my career as an Canadian Telecommunication Cyber Protection and Emergency Officer under the reins of Maggie (Smith) Lackey.

 

Over most of my 35 years with government, I have been involved in one way shape or form in Operations.  I went from drafting microwave, non-directional beacons, earth station and antenna contours, and writing and maintaining FORTRAN programs that performed Electromagnetic Compatibility Studies with respect to our Automated Licensing System.  Later I became an Electronic Engineering Technologist and supported the technical staff as we reviewed programs and processes of the licensing system with Maurice Drew.  We later took over the responsibilities for the operations of the Mobile Spectrum Monitoring System vehicles Marks III and IV and their use to study frequency sharing and trunking systems which validated requirements for additional trunking channels. We won an award of excellence with the monitoring programs; and made presentations to other countries as to the value they brought to the department with respect to spectrum management.   After Maurice left, I managed these systems under Octave Belanger (he will state he didn’t need to do any management of me) and I continued the process of hiring Waterloo co-op students to modify code in conjunction with Acton and St. Hebert Monitoring Site requirements while continuing to provide technical assistance to the ALS programs. I even did time providing LAN/WAN support with Howard and Carole Diotte and was seconded half days to help Michel Milot in the Emergency Telecommunications side of the house where after six months in the secondment I won a position to replace the then retired Joe MacPherson.

 

My last 10 years was as an Emergency Telecom / National Cyber Protection Officer where I can honestly say that, though out of my genera and challenging in many senses of the word and at times stressful, was a gratifying one to end a career on!  We worked with many dedicated Regional and District Emergency Telecom Officers (RETOs and DETOs), industry partners who always seemed to give when we asked for help and we too helped them in times of need or emergencies.  This allowed me time to participate in NATO and their telecom exercises and project document reviews; commented on ITU documents; was involved with the Working Group for Emergency Telecommunications (WGET); and with many different government departments on Emergency Management and their many committees, and was part of the team looking after our Business Continuity and Resumption Plans.  But time with the telecom industry, wired and wireless in Canada, the US and the UK was a sheer delight.  The dedication and team spirit and yes the laughter made it all worth the stresses a day could bring.

 

My name appears in 2001 and 2005 as a participant in the identification and wording of sections within the United Nations/International Telecommunications Union

 

Handbook on Emergency Telecommunications - Edition 2005

 

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/emergencytelecoms/publications.html

 

as well as contributions to others country publications while the team of Michel Milot, Kathleen McCrea and myself were being interviewed on Emergency Telecommunications and other similarly related projects.   When Michel Milot was in Bangladesh I helped add to the final document with the identification of varies tools and telecom equipment types that could be beneficial in the event of an emergency to that country.

 

Though my character was not like Michel Milot; who would always appear to smile when someone would say “there is an emergency event we have to deal with”, the reality was we were doing something to help National Security and Emergency Preparedness.   Floods, avalanches, mud slides, Ice Storm, Year 2000, Kosovo, September 11, Swiss Air 111, and Katrina were some of the challenges that we dealt with, we had to always be prepared such as with the “G” Summits occurring in Canada.

 

As we made the shift to include Cyber into the Emergency community I became the liaison component between the physical and cyber side of our IC family, I was now dealing in an uncomfortable zone.  This began as a result of Jan Skora calling me one Saturday asking if I would agree to work in the US for 6 to 8 weeks on a project which he would not tell me anything about.   You guessed it I went and as a result, I believe sharing, trust, collaboration and cooperation has profited many fold.   Not because of my pioneering, but the vision of Jan Skora and the Manager of the National Communications System / National Coordinating Center vision to make it so.  As a direct result, we participate at International Network Information Exchanges between the US, the UK and Canada.  During these years on the Cyber side, and though not a frequent occurrence I could be awakened from calls from Public Safety Canada; or the US National Communications System and their National Coordinating Center, or a US or UK telecom carriers.  The US manager would always say to his analysts “If you feel this was important to wake me up then make sure Kluver is up as well. “   These calls were either to alert Industry Canada on important activities; looking for information or giving us a heads up on whatever attack against a government and financial sector.

 

A new Emergency Team Canadian Telecommunications Cyber Protection (CTCP) working group was created in DPR under Maggie (Smith) Lackey, one that would not only help out in the event of a Physical emergency, but work on the cyber world of vulnerabilities, network attacks, viruses, and so much more.  Each day creating a new day, but once again our telecom partners were with us, the international world was with us, as we worked closely with Public Safety (another department that has seen so many name changes) and the international community to stay as close a stride as possible in the cyber side to those on the dark side.  The team received in 2007 by the Community of Federal Regulators the “Regulatory Excellence Award (CTCP Team)”.  I was always great full that we had access to Bob Leafloor and his expertise as he often added a much required humor and / or side bar distraction during our many meetings, reviews and preparations.

 

Though there was still much work to do, after 35 years it was time to hand off to someone new, so on January 18^th, 2009, I closed off a career that is filled with much memories, but in all, it was because I was always part of a great “TEAM”   I am always thankful for to those that surrounded us in our endeavors.