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Dear Mr. Beatty,
Mr. MacDonald, M.P. for Dartmouth, N.S., has indicated to me that I should contact you about the following matter.
In 1989, I was recommended by the N.S. Research Foundation to the Science and Technology Agency of Japan (S.T.A.) as an appropriate candidate for their consideration in making fellowship awards. After scrutiny by the Canadian Science and Engineering Council (NSERC), my application was sent to the STA and approved by them. I travelled to Japan in March 1990, and returned a year later. In April 1992, I was laid off (in my 20th year of service with the N.S. government), on the grounds of redundancy. There are many aspects about my layoff which should be addressed by the N.S. authorities and I have no desire to trouble you about these. I wish only to convey to you, for your information, aspects of the affair which may relate to international relations.
I feel obliged to send an addendum to my original report to the STA about my experience with their fellowship scheme. I have sent a draft of this to our embassy in Tokyo for comments by the Science and Technology counsellor there (Mr. Wilson).
It is interesting to note that my own merits (or lack thereof) are irrelvant in the making of an assessment of the potential damage to relations with Japan which has been risked by the administrators of the N.S. Research Foundation :
If I was of little use or consequence, then they should not have recommended me to the STA in the first place;
If I was hard working and brilliant, then their action subsequent to my return indicates a disdain for any possible future R&D relationship with Japan and seems also to disparage the experience I gained while I was in that country.
In short, it would seem that an insult has been delivered to the STA by the N.S. Research Foundation, and that this has been done independently of any of my own actions.
I should make it quite clear to you that this note is intended for your information only. I have no complaints to lay about the actions of anyone associated with your department whom I have encountered in my travels, indeed quite the opposite. During the winter of 1992-93, I had occasion to visit Russia, Japan and the U.S. and I found the staff of the embassies in Moscow, Tokyo and Washington (and also the consulates in Osaka and Atlanta) particularly competent and considerate, and I refrain from mentioning names of the commercial and other representatives in these locations only for fear of forgetting someone who has been helpful.
Yours sincerely........., Alasdair McKay