Margaret McCuaig-Johnston is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Science, Society and Policy and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa where she has been lecturing and writing on China’s science and technology policies since 2013.  For three years she was a Distinguished Fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada where she has published on China’s incubators for start-up companies, and until recently was a Research Associate at the Center for China Innovation Research & Training at Duke University in Kunshan, China.  She also spent seven years as a Senior Fellow with the China Institute at the University of Alberta where she published papers on the reform of China’s innovation system, the challenges faced by technology company joint ventures in China, and a history of Canada-China science and technology relations.  She has also published with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Journal of Innovation and Development Policy.

Since January 2019, Margaret has been outspoken about arbitrary detention and human rights in China, and her op-eds and interviews have been published in the Nikkei Asia Review, the Strategist, the Diplomat, the Conversation, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen, the National Post, the BBC, CBC, CTV, Global News, Bloomberg NN, Izvestia, US Public Radio PRX, Voice of America, and Radio Free Asia among others.

Over a 37-year career in the public service, Margaret held senior management positions in the Governments of Canada and Ontario.  Most recently she was Executive Vice-President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council; prior to that she was Assistant Deputy Minister Energy Technology and Programs at Natural Resources Canada; and her first Assistant Deputy Minister appointment was at the federal Department of Finance. She has also had management positions at Industry Canada, the Prime Minister’s National Advisory Board on Science and Technology, the Ministry of State for S&T, and the Privy Council Office (the Prime Minister’s department), primarily positions related to S&T policies, programs and funding.  She also worked for eight years in the provincial Government of Ontario.  

For the last seven years of her government career, Margaret was a member of the Canada-China Joint Committee on Science and Technology.  She also had close relations over the years with China on other matters such as energy, manufacturing, industry, associations and think tanks.  Margaret edited the first English translation of China’s National Innovation Index for China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.  She has visited China more than a dozen times, the first in 1979 when the country had just started opening up to the West.  Margaret holds an MA in International Relations focused on China, and an Honours BA in Political Economy.  She speaks basic Mandarin.  She is also immediate past Vice-Chair of the Board of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory – SNOLAB, past Vice-President of the Canada-China Friendship Society in Ottawa, and a current Board member of the Canadian International Council (National Capital).  She is also a member of the Canada Committee and the Canadian Board of Human Rights Watch, and a Policy Advisor to the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project.