was appointed Canadian ambassador to Finland. During his time in Helsinki, he served as the Canadian representative at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe meetings that led to the Helsinki Accords of 1975. He retired in 1975. Retirement After his retirement, he settled in Ottawa, where he became a member of Association des communautés francophones d’Ottawa and was active in campaigning for Ontario to support French language secondary schools. Côté's lobbying was successful and Ontario agreed to fund French language high schools. He was active on the board of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, where served as a director and governor. Denis St. Onge, the former president of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society recalled: "He was very proud of his country and its flag. He was such a great guy". In 1991, his wife Madeline died. In 2004, the French government made him a Knight of the Legion of Honour. In 2014, he returned to France three times. On 20 April 2014, Côté returned to Normandy to attend the premiere of the film Code Secret:Les Carottes Sont Cuites, a documentary directed by the Montreal journalist Alain Stanké. On 6 June 2014, he returned to Juno Beach at the age of 100 to take part in the ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of D-Day. On 11 November 2014, Côté returned to Juno Beach again to lay a wreath to honor the Canadians killed in the Normandy campaign, where his presence as the last living colonel who served in the Canadian Army in World War Two attracted large crowds. On 18 December 2014, a local thug and criminal named Ian Bush robbed Côté's home and tied him up with a plastic bag around his head with the intention of killing him. Côté told the media at the time: "Some people think that if you’re 101 years of age, you crumble up and wonder, ‘Oh why, what was happening.’ No, I was just mad." Côté was able to break free and call the Ottawa police who arrested Bush. Bush was charged with robbery and attempted murder. DNA testing subsequently showed that Bush was responsible for a brutal triple murder in June 2007 of an Ottawa judge Alban Garon, his wife Raymonde, and their neighbour, Marie-Claire Beniskos. In another interview, Côté stated: "Life is such that when you see these things happen to you, you try to get out. The important thing