Former American President Jimmy Carter was in the midst of promoting his new Presidential memoir, Keeping Faith, on this date in 1982. He took time out while on his book tour to speak with the Toronto Star ‘s Washington reporter Bill Fox. “I never had known Joe Clark before we went to the economic summit conference in Tokyo (in 1979)” Carter said when asked by Fox about his relationships with the Canadian PMs he worked with. “I describe him in my book as well briefed (and) very precise in his statements and very familiar with the issues that we addressed…. Pierre Trudeau is now the senior person. He’s the only surviving one of the ones who were at the first (G7) economic summit that I attended."
Carter also shared details about the famous Canadian Caper whereby Canada’s Ambassador to Iran, Ken Taylor, and his wife and staff, put their lives at risk in revolutionary Iran in 1979-80 by giving shelter to six American diplomats who had avoided capture. The Americans were later smuggled out of Iran by CIA agents in deep cover. “One of the subterfuges that was used was the evolution of a documentary film crew — I think it even had an artificial name — and they went in with camera equipment and so forth posing as journalists or as people making a motion picture," Carter told Fox.