THE SPAT OF LONDON
Canadian historian and think-tank adviser at war with High Commission over the direction of a pro-Canada charity.
The charitable foundation given the job of promoting Canada in Britain is in an uproar after several board members quit this week, accusing the Canadian High Commission of meddling.
Historian Margaret MacMillan and think-tank adviser Diana Carney, the wife of the Bank of England chief, are among the four people who handed in their resignations.
In her resignation letter, Ms. MacMillan said it’s clear the high commission plans to take over the Foundation for Canadian Studies in the United Kingdom with the aim of promoting Canada’s interests as it sees fit.
The foundation’s website says it co-operates with — but operates separately from — the diplomatic mission, which has made financial contributions over the years.
The organization, a British charity with an endowment of about $2.3-million, was set up in 1975 to support teaching, research and publishing about Canada in Britain, as well as foster academic ties and student exchanges between Canadian and British universities.
In a December letter to the board, High Commissioner Gordon Campbell outlined plans to exercise the commission’s right to appoint four new board members to help the foundation “do more to inform and educate the British public” about the strength of the Canada-U.K. relationship.
Three of these new members, all employees of the high commission, have proposed ousting fellow board member Rachel Killick, a professor emeritus at the University of Leeds. The reasons for removing the specialist in Quebec studies and 19th-century history remain unclear.
The motion is to be voted on at a board meeting Friday
In her resignation letter, dated last Saturday, the Toronto-born Ms. MacMillan, warden of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, says she is “shocked and dismayed” by the high commission’s apparent attempt to get rid of Prof. Killick.
“This is no way to treat any board member, much less one who has worked so hard and conscientiously,” added the author of such influential books as Paris 1919 and The War That Ended Peace.
“It is also increasingly clear to me that the high commission intends effectively to take the foundation over and use its funds for the promotion of Canada’s interests as defined by it.”
Others who resigned from the board in the last week are Steve Hewitt, a senior lecturer in the history department of the University of Birmingham, and Susan Hodgett of the Institute for Research in Social Sciences at the University of Ulster.
The reasons for the change remain murky.
Diana Khaddaj, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa, said the impetus came from the board itself.
She said the high commission was approached in late November by board members — she would not say who — to intervene in an “ongoing divergence of views” about the foundation’s direction.
She added it would not be appropriate to discuss the differences.
Robert Hain, who resigned as board chairman in October, said the board included “immensely talented and dedicated people,” each of whom had “a legitimate perspective.”
Rick Bastiani, the foundation’s secretary, did not respond to a request for comment.
This [removal] is no way to treat any board member
The foundation’s website says the organization is expanding to consider research directed at issues “of strategic importance to both Canada and the U.K., such as energy, transport, communications, the sustainable use of natural resources, multiculturalism and the welfare of indigenous peoples.”
“In particular, the foundation wishes to link the U.K. research community with potential sponsors of research relevant to Canada.”
Another motive for the attempt to fire Prof. Killick might be a recent change in the tax status of the Foundation for Canadian Studies.
It was once among a handful of foreign charities allowed to issue tax receipts in Canada.
But in Mr. Campbell’s December letter, obtained by The Canadian Press, he advised board members that this status had ended.
He went on to add that the federal government’s decision might change if the foundation also changed.
“I understand from my colleagues in Ottawa that our renewal request would be entertained if the foundation were to expand its mission,” he wrote.
Last month, there were rumours Mr. Campbell, a former B.C. premier, might be the one who changed as he was mulling a return to politics.
Mr. Campbell, who was appointed to be Canada’s top diplomat in Britain by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was considering running in the new Vancouver-Granville riding.
Pollsters asked residents if they would vote for him as a federal MP candidate, less than five years after he resigned from politics amid a dismal popularity rating, CTV News reported.