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Michaëlle Jean, CC, CMM, COM, CD, Ph.D.(honoris causa) ,(born September 6, 1957, in Port-au-Prince, Haïti) is the current Governor General of Canada. Jean was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Paul Martin, to succeed Adrienne Clarkson and become the 27th governor general of Canada since Confederation in 1867. As the current Governor General of Canada, she is entitled to be styled Her Excellency while in office, and The Right Honourable for life; she will be sworn to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada after her term as the Queen's representative has ended. An official announcement about the appointment was made on August 4, 2005. Her investiture took place on September 27. Prior to becoming Governor General, Jean was a journalist and broadcaster on Radio-Canada and the CBC. She is the first person of Afro-Caribbean heritage to serve as Governor General, the third woman, and the second immigrant.
Biography Jean fled Haïti with her family from dictator François Duvalier's regime in 1968. Her father, with whom she has recently reconciled, was a philosopher who was tortured under Duvalier's regime and separated from the family for 30 years. The Jean family settled at Thetford Mines, Quebec. As a student at the University of Montreal, Jean received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature and, from 1984 until 1986, taught Italian Studies while completing a Master of Arts degree in comparative literature. Jean attended the University of Florence, the University of Perugia, and the Catholic University of Milan to continue her studies in language and literature. Besides French and English, Jean is fluent in Spanish, Italian, and Haïtian Kréyòl and can read Portuguese. While attending university, Jean worked at a shelter for battered women from 1979 until 1987. She later helped establish a network of shelters for women and children across Canada. Jean also worked in organizations that helped immigrants to Canada and then later worked for Employment and Immigration Canada (now Human Resources and Skills Development Canada) and at the Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec, where Jean began writing about the experiences of immigrant women. Family Jean married documentary film-maker Jean-Daniel Lafond. They have one daughter, Marie-Éden, adopted from Haïti. Jean was born in Haïti; Lafond in France, and Marie-Éden in Haïti; making the entire vice-regal family of non-Canadian and non-Commonwealth birth. Career Jean was an award-winning reporter, filmmaker, and broadcaster. She was employed by Radio-Canada in 1988, where she worked as a reporter and then host of news and affairs programs such as Actuel, Montréal ce soir, and Virages and Le Point. In 1995, she anchored a number of Réseau de l'Information à Radio-Canada (RDI) programs such as Le Monde ce soir, l'Édition québécoise, Horizons francophones, Les Grands reportages, Le Journal RDI, and RDI à l'écoute. In 1999, she was also asked by the English network, CBC Newsworld, to host The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts, which broadcast the best in Canadian and foreign documentary films. By 2004, she began her own show, Michaëlle, while continuing on Radio-Canada, hosting RDI's Grands Reportages, as well as an occasional anchor of Le Téléjournal. She and Lafond have made several films, including the award-winning Haïti dans tous nos rêves (Haïti in all Our Dreams). In the film, she meets her uncle, the poet and essayist René Depestre, who fled from the Duvalier dictatorship into exile in France and wrote about his dreams for Haïti, to tell him Haïti awaits his return. She has hosted and produced news and documentary programming for television on both the English and French services of the CBC. Investiture of the 27th governor general
As Governor General Following a tradition for governors general, Jean's first months in the position saw her traveling to each province and territory of Canada. Where she went, crowds were large and welcoming, a marked contrast to the low approval levels shown in polls earlier. On November 27, 2005, Jean attended the Grey Cup and presented the Cup, donated by previous Governor General Earl Grey in 1909, to the victorious Edmonton Eskimos. In the past, this function was often performed by the Prime Minister. In 2006, Jean, Lafond, and their daughter undertook their first international trip, visiting Italy to attend the closing ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics, where Canada was given the Olympic flag as the hosts of the next games in 2010, as well as to meet Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, and Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican City State. On April 17, 2006, while on a visit to the territory of Nunavut, Jean opened the annual Toonik Tyme Festival, and announced her donation of eighty books written in Inuktitut, French and English to the Iqaluit Centennial Library, in commemoration of Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday on April 21, 2006. The next month, on May 4, she became the first Governor General to address the Alberta legislature during her first official provincial visit there. That visit preceded another to Saskatchewan, where Jean made stops in Regina, Fort Qu'Appelle and Qu'Appelle. Jean participated in an historic private discussion with women chiefs and elders at Government House, following the Lieutenant Governor's luncheon, where a local Monarchist League of Canada representative was master of ceremonies. Also in May, she attended the investiture of René Préval as President of Haïti, her first visit to her homeland in her viceregal capacity. She was greeted with open arms in her hometown of Jacmel. Jean became the first governor general to launch an online chat with Canadians, on September 27, 2006. This initiative was part of a larger project, creating a website within the Governor General's domain name, dubbed "Citizen Voices: Breaking Down Solitudes," where users could engage each other in blogs and discussion forums. Controversy during tenure The controversies that attached themselves to Jean prior to her appointment continued into the early months of her time as Governor General. At the October 12, 2005, National Press Gallery dinner, a jovial annual event akin to a roast in which Canadian politicians and reporters gather and by tradition make speeches satirizing one another, Jean stirred controversy when she referred jokingly to Parti Québécois leadership candidate André Boisclair's admitted cocaine use. Also, during Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa on November 11, 2005, a handful of veterans turned their backs on the Governor General as her car drove up to the National War Memorial. The protesters said they believed Jean and her husband were Quebec separatist sympathizers who worked to break up a country the veterans fought to defend. During the week of September 18, 2006, in an interview with the Canadian Press, speaking about an idea for subsidies for Canadians to visit other parts of the country, Jean stated that Quebecers "are sometimes very disconnected from the rest of Canada" and that it is affecting the country's unity. Criticized by Quebec separatist politicians, including André Boisclair and Gilles Duceppe, she later clarified her statement by saying that Canadians from all provinces are disconnected from other parts of the country. A September 26 editorial in the Montreal Gazette, however, supported Jean's statements on the divisions between Canada's peoples, and said that supporting national unity was a part of a governor general's mandate. In an editorial on September 27, 2006, journalist Chantal Hébert stated that Jean had "been wading uncommonly deep in political territory over the past few months," citing the Governor General's criticism of Quebec sovereigntists, and her support for the mission of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, expressed in first year anniversary interviews. Arms Following her installation as Governor General, Jean was granted a personal coat of arms by the Canadian Heraldic Authority, depicting her Haïtian roots. The shield shows a sand dollar, a special talisman for Jean, and the Crown symbolising her vice-regal authority. The crest is a shell in a broken chain, symbolising her ancestors' escape from slavery. The supporters are two Simbis, water spirits in Haïtian culture. The motto is Briser les solitudes, which means Breaking down solitudes. Around the shield is the circlet of the Order of Canada, with its motto, Desiderantes meliorem patriam, which means Desiring a better homeland. Honours Her full style and title in English is: Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Canada, Chancellor and Commander of the Order of Military Merit, Chancellor and Commander of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief in and over Canada. In French it is: Son Excellence la très honorable Michaëlle Jean, chancelière et compagnon principale de l'ordre du Canada, chancelière et commandante de l'ordre du mérite militaire, chancelière et commandante de l'ordre du mérite des forces de police, gouverneure générale et commandante en chef du Canada As Governor General she is also Dame of Justice of the Order and Prior and Chief Officer in Canada of St. John of Jerusalem. She has won many prizes, such as the Amnesty International journalism award. Jean is an honourary member of the Royal Military College of Canada Club H24575. Honorary Degrees Awards prior to vice-regal posting See also Footnotes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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