Commissionaire

In mainland Europe, a commissionaire is an attendant, messenger or subordinate employed in hotels, whose chief duty is to attend at railway stations, secure customers, take charge of their luggage, carry out the necessary formalities with respect to it and have it sent on to the hotel. They are also employed in Paris as street messengers, light porters, etc.

In the UK and some Commonwealth countries, a commissionaire is a doorman.

Under commercial and tax law in civil law jurisdictions (much of mainland Europe), a commissionaire arrangement is a variation on agency, under which the principal is not bound to the customer by actions of the commissionaire.

It can also refer to an employee of a Corps of Commissionaires. The original Corps of Commissionaires was founded in England during 1859 by Captain Sir Edward Walter, K.C.B. (1823–1904) to provide employment for former members of the armed services.

The Canadian Corps was formed for the same purpose in 1925 with the opening of offices in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. A national organization was realized by 1950 with the opening of the St. John's, Newfoundland office. In 1982, the Canadian Corps had grown to more than 10,000 employees, which virtually doubled the complement of its British parent.

To meet its growing demands for personnel after the September 11 attacks in 2001, Commissionaires began accepting civilians. While in today's organization not all Commissionaires are veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces or Royal Canadian Mounted Police service, the organization's mandate still is to provide meaningful employment to veterans. A significant proportion of their current members are veterans and the Corps hires about 1,200 veterans every year. Today, Commissionaires employs over 19,000 people with offices operating in all ten provinces and three territories.

Members of the Corps are often used as trained security guards in major companies and other organizations. The main role of a Commissionaire is the protection of people, property and information. Commissionaires are found in many Federal establishments across Canada guarding everything from museum pieces to live ammunition and government files.

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