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Space For Open letter to Lloyd Axworthy. Minister, Foreign Affairs of Canada S i n c e injustice is being done within your department and since my repeated calls to your office have not been returned. I can only conclude that your junior staff voluntarily denies access to you by the public. I have, therefore, felt it my duty to try to bring the issue to your attention, and. if need be. that of the public at large as well. I am a resident of Canada who w ill be applying for citizenship in two months. Unlike people born in this country. I have made it a matter of my own choice to establish residence here. I had worked for the Canadian Embassy in Belgrade for two years and came to like your people. They in turn liked me and highly valued my performance and loyalty, of which letters of reference from two charges d'affaires stand witness. My colleagues at the embassy kept assuring me that I was going to be a valuable contribution to Canadian society. Upon immigration, however. I met with discrimination instead, and to my disillusionment, from within the very same Foreign Ministry. You may care to know that I am a writer. My essays and poetry have been published in art. literary and various other journals, not only in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, but also in Amsterdam, Belgrade and San Francisco. I express myself in your language, the language of the country whose reputed cultural diversity made me choose it over the other ones, although I first started learning English at the age of 14.1 was naive to believe that the supposed Canadian multiculturalism included me as well. But it turns out not to be the case. I am one of 50 North American writers who have been scheduled to read at the OutWrite lesbian, gay, biand transsexual conference in Boston, where an anthology to which 1 am a contributor (77ie Best Gay hunt, IWh. h> the renowned feminist and lesbi-gay publisher, Cleis Press) shall be launched. After I explained that the deadlines made it impossible for me to request a travel grant from Canada Council, your employee, Michel Gigault of Youth and Personalities Exchanges, while not yet knowing the nature of the book or my national heritage, enthusiastically encouraged me to accept the invitation to the conference, saying that his office exists to cover the cost of travel to international events. Upon receipt of my application, the same Michel Gigault suddenly decided to change his mind, saying that he only finances "emergencies," which, to my bafflement, he explained as "travel grants only for serious readings by prominent Canadians abroad," thus stretching his prerogatives beyond those of the clerk that he is into the field of quasiliterary criticism, passing judgement on art he had not taken the trouble to familiarize himself with. Your ministry's annual reports show it indeed sponsors hundreds of Canadians each year to go abroad and represent the country's culture at over 1,000 venues. To my understanding, a top-level gay and lesbian conference in the United States is clearly international and serious enough. The Americans obviously choose to take me and my writing seriously, so that Monsieur Gigault's cynical comment. I regret to say, leaves me speculating whether the true motivation behind his disparaging decision may be discrimination due to the fact that 1 am a) a member of an audible--if not visible--minority, clearly defined with the c in my family name, b) an immigrant from a country whose inhabitants have been represented in the media as the villains of the Rant world, to the result of formerYugoslavia's consulate being subject to arson in the heart of downtown Vancouver, c) gay. and d) a writer unashamed of my erotic impulses. Sir. I choose not to believe that this could have been in any way done under your instructions: I am sure that you will agree that by withholding promised support, for which I qualify in accordance with its mandate to the Canadian public, and by impeding a proper representation of Canadian immigrant gay male erotica at North America's writing conference. Youth and Personalities Exchanges not only hampered my own career in way I could not mitigate, but also deprived Canada of an opportunity to be represented by a non-Anglo-Saxon-identified artist. Unfortunately, this shall prove to be to Canada's own loss unless you find it within your jurisdiction to review the necessary facts and remedy the sad issue quickly, in exception of which I remain. Sincerely yours. Miodrag Kojadinovic At press time, Mr. Kojadinovic still had not received any reply from Uoyd Axworthy's office. Arts Alive mokes spoce available for people working in the arts to express themselves--or rant--about artsrelated issues. Call Gloria Loree at Arts Alive (9849537) for more details. Arts Alive reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clarity. "\ was naive supposed Canadian to believe t h a t the multiculturalism included me"