James George Chronology

1918

Born in Toronto

1940

Rhodes Scholar for Ontario, educated at Upper Canada College, Trinity College, and University of Toronto.

1940-1945

Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, Ordinary Seaman to Lt. Commander.

1951-1955

Canadian Deputy Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York, and a member of the UN Disarmament Commission.

1957-1960

Deputy Permanent Representative at NATO in Paris.

1960-1964

High Commissioner to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

1966-1967

Minister at the Canadian Embassy in Paris.

1967-1972

High Commissioner to India and Ambassador to Nepal.

1971

Credited by the Commonwealth Secretary General, Arnold Smith, with helping to contain the conflict between India and Pakistan.

1972-1977

Ambassador to Iran and the Gulf States.

1975

Published Achaemenid Orientations, which documents the discovery, made by James and Carol George, that the design of the great early Persian temple and palace of Persepolis was determined by the summer and winter solstice sunrise and sunset orientations.

1978

Co-founded the Threshold Foundation, which serves the social change movement through collaborating with and funding innovative nonprofit organizations and individuals working towards social justice, environmental sustainability, humane economic systems, and peaceful coexistence.

1978-1982

While serving as the Director of the Threshold Foundation in London, he played a leading role in getting the International Whaling Commission to adopt a moratorium on high seas whaling and to ban all whaling in the Indian Ocean and the Antarctic. Since these measures were taken, several species of whales that had been on the road to extinction are now recovering.

1980

One of the founders of the Group of 78, an informal association of Canadians seeking to promote global priorities for peace and disarmament, equitable and sustainable development, and a strong and revitalized United Nations system.

1982

A founding member of the Palme Commission, which reported to the United Nations General Assembly in 1982 on Security and Disarmament.

1984

Co-founded the Anwar Sadat Peace Foundation, which promotes peace in the Middle East.

1984-1992

Served as Chairman of the Harmonic Arts Society at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, 1984-92.

1985

One of the founders of Rainforest Action Network, which plays a key role in strengthening the worldwide rainforest conservation movement.

1987

Chaired the Asian Non-Governmental Organizations Conference on tropical forests in New Delhi in 1987.

1989

With the inventor, Adam Trombly, he demonstrated a zero point energy generator at the United Nations, New York, and to the Senate Energy Committee.

1991

Led the Friends of the Earth international scientific mission to assess environmental damage from the post-Golf War oil fires in Kuwait. This mission is credited with having awakened public opinion to the extent of the danger so that 24 teams finally took part in putting out the fires in six months, instead of the five years estimated by the original four teams engaged.

1995

Published Asking for the Earth : Waking Up to the Spiritual/Ecological Crisis.

1995 – present

Member of the Advisory Council of Mr. Gorbachev’s State of the World Forum, a community of committed individuals and institutions united by a shared sense of responsibility for the human future.

1999 – present

Working with USAquaSonics, on a new and benign technology to make the desalinization of seawater significantly more affordable.

2002 – present

President of No Weapons in Space (NOWIS), a coalition of Canadian peace groups encouraging the government to initiate an international conference, on the model of the Land Mines Convention, to sign a Space Preservation Treaty banning all weapons in space.

2003

Working on a major wind farm project in British Columbia.

Speaking at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. at a conference on space security issues.

2003-2007

Member of a lobby group in Toronto which successfully promoted legislation to regulate Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners in Ontario.

2006 — 2008

Member of the Association of Space Explorers Panel on Asteroid Threat Mitigation, which reported to the United Nations in 2008, calling for a globally coordinated plan to prevent a catastrophic collision between earth and an asteroid, now that modern technology has made such action feasible.

2007

Awarded an Honourary Doctorate of Sacred Letters by Trinity College, University of Toronto, at its May Convocation.

2007

In September, CBC showed a short TV documentary, “In the Spirit of Diplomacy,” on his life by independent film-maker Marco Mascarin, with clips from a 70 minute TV documentary made in 1975 by Paul Saltzman, with Patrick Watson narrating, entitled “Saint Demetrius Rides a Red Horse: James George Leaves India.”

2009

Publication of his book, The Little Green Book on Awakening.

2010

Extensive interview published by the Toronto Star on October 24.

2011

Interviewed as a “local hero” in the Village Post (Toronto) in January.

2020

Died in Toronto, February 7.