Michael Stainton

Michael Stainton 史邁克 is YCAR’s “retired” specialist on Taiwan, and President of the Taiwanese Human Rights Association of Canada. In the 1980s he worked for indigenous rural community development and adult education as a missionary with the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. In the 1990s he did graduate study in anthropology at York, focused on Taiwan’s democratization and indigenous rights movements. He has led two Canadian election observer groups to Taiwan, in 1992 and 2012. In 1996, he organized the first visit of Taiwan Indigenous leaders to Canadian First Nations, to study self-government. In 2000, he founded the Canadian Mackay Committee, to promote the memory of Canada’s first missionary and outspoken opponent of the Head Tax, George Leslie Mackay (1844–1901), now a national hero in Taiwan but long forgotten in Canada. Michael describes this as resurrecting dead missionaries to build bridges between Canada and Taiwan.