Michaëlle Jean? |
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| Rank: | 27th |
| Term of Office: | September 27, 2005 - |
| Predecessor: | Adrienne Clarkson |
| Successor: | Incumbent |
| Birth: | September 6, 1957 |
| Place of Birth: | Port-au-Prince, Haiti |
| Spouse: | Jean-Daniel Lafond |
| Profession: | Journalist |
| Religion: | Catholic |
Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, CC, CMM, COM, CD mi•ka•ɛl ʒɑ̃ (born September 6, 1957 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is the current governor general of Canada. Jean was approved by Queen Elizabeth II, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Paul Martin, to succeed Adrienne Clarkson and become the 27th governor general of Canada.
An official announcement about the appointment was made on August 4, 2005. Her investiture took place on September 27 (see Investiture of the 27th governor general, below). As Governor General, Jean is the Queen's Vice-Regal representative, the expression of the Crown in Canada, Canada's de facto head of state and commander-in-chief of its armed forces. Other major roles and responsibilities include promoting national unity, protecting and promoting Canadian culture and identity, and celebrating excellence amongst Canadians.
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Biography
Jean fled Haiti 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.
Besides French and English, Jean is fluent in Spanish, Italian and Haitian Creole and can read Portuguese.
As a student at the University of Montreal, Jean received a Bachelor of Arts in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature and, from 1984 until 1986, taught Italian Studies while completing a Master of Arts in comparative literature. Jean attended the universities of Florence, Perugia and the Catholic University of Milan to continue her studies in language and literature.
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 Quebec and Canada. Jean also worked in organizations that helped immigrants who came to Canada and then later worked for Employment and Immigration Canada and at the Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec. Jean began writing about the experiences of immigrant women. Jean held dual citizenship (Canadian and French) as a result of her marriage, but on September 23, 2005, announced her voluntary renunciation of her French citizenship in order to feel 'more comfortable' in her acceptance of her appointment as Governor General of Canada. She has one daughter, Marie-Eden, adopted from Haiti.
Career
Jean went on to become an award-winning reporter, filmmaker, and broadcaster. Jean married documentary film-maker Jean-Daniel Lafond and together they made several films including the award-winning film, Haïti dans tous nos rêves (Haiti in all Our Dreams). In the film, she meets her uncle, the poet and essayist René Depestre, who went into exile in France from the Duvalier dictatorship and wrote about his dreams for Haiti, to tell him Haiti awaits his return. She has won many prizes, such as the Amnesty International journalism award. She has hosted and produced news and documentary programming for television on both the English and French services of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She was most recently the host of CBC Newsworld's The Passionate Eye and RDI's Grands Reportages, as well as an occasional anchor of Radio-Canada's Le Téléjournal.
Governor General
In announcing Jean as his choice to succeed Clarkson, Prime Minister Martin said she "is a woman of talent and achievement. Her personal story is nothing short of extraordinary. And extraordinary is precisely what we seek in a Governor-General — who after all must represent all of Canada to all Canadians and to the rest of the world as well." 1
Jean is Canada's first black Governor General, the second person without either a political or military background (after Adrienne Clarkson), the second person from a visible minority and (again after Clarkson), foreign-born (like Clarkson and breaking tradition since Vincent Massey's appointment), the second person in an interracial marriage (again after Clarkson), the third woman (after Jeanne Sauvé and Clarkson), the fourth-youngest person (after Lord Lorne (33 years old in 1878), Lord Lansdowne in (38 years old in 1883) and Edward Schreyer (43 years old in 1979)), and the fourth journalist (after Sauvé, Roméo LeBlanc and Clarkson) to hold the position. She is also the first Governor General to be born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
Prime Minister Paul Martin, Marie-Eden Jean and Michaëlle Jean on the day of Michaëlle Jean's appointment as 27th Governor General of Canada.As Lafond was born in France and their six-year-old adopted daughter, Marie-Éden, born in Haiti, the entire vice-regal family will be of non-Canadian and non-Commonwealth birth. Ms. Jean had held dual citizenship; she applied to become a French citizen upon marrying her husband who also held Canadian and French citizenship. She renounced her French citizenship, however, on the eve of her appointment to Governor General, in light of the responsibilities of a head of state.2 3 It will also mark the first time in over 30 years that children have lived in Rideau Hall.
Jean, in her first remarks after her appointment, said she wanted to reach out to all Canadians, regardless of their background. Jean also made it a goal to reach out especially to Canadian youth and those who feel disadvantaged. 4 Jean also encouraged all Canadians to become involved in community affairs.
On September 6, 2005, Queen Elizabeth II granted an audience to Jean and her family at Balmoral Castle. Though it is standard for a new governor general to have an audience of the monarch before assuming office, this meeting was unique in that Madame Jean's young daughter was present, marking the first time in the Queen's reign that a governor general has brought her young child to an audience.
Reaction
- Stephen Harper, the leader of the Conservative Party, and also the Leader of the Opposition, congratulated Jean on her appointment and said that her life story "serves as a great example to many Canadians. I know Mme. Jean will serve Canada in a dignified, vice-regal fashion." 5
- The departing Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson, applauded Martin for choosing Jean by saying she is "an exciting and imaginative choice for Governor General." Clarkson said she and her husband John Ralston Saul look forward to Jean being invested with her position with "great enthusiasm." 6
- Gilles Duceppe, the leader of the Bloc Québécois was disappointed when Jean decided to "accept a position that is strictly honourary and within an institution that is not democratic." 7
- Jack Layton, the leader of the New Democratic Party, said he wished Jean and her family well and that he looks "forward to seeing a family again in Rideau Hall, which is fitting for the first Governor-General of a new century." Layton also commented about Canadian peacekeepers at this time by saying Jean "knows well the value of the peacekeeping operations that give Canadians so much pride." 8
- Political commentator Rex Murphy wrote an opinion piece in the national newspaper The Globe and Mail the week of Jean's appointment, criticizing the undemocratic nature of the institution as a whole, along with the appointment of five additional Canadian senators by the Prime Minister that same week.
Controversy
Soon after the announcement of Jean's appointment, Prime Minister Martin was asked if the current political climate in Ottawa caused him to appoint her. Martin denied that the appointment was a political move to gain seats in Quebec, where the Liberal Party lost 15 seats in the last election. 9 It should be noted that by the office's established tradition of alternating anglophones and francophones, Martin was almost certain to choose a francophone to succeed Clarkson. Until Jean's appointment, Jeanne Sauvé, who served from 1984 to 1990, was the last governor general to live in Quebec, and Jules Léger, who served from 1974 to 1979, was the last Governor General from Quebec.
On August 11, 2005 The Globe and Mail reported that in an forthcoming article released early by the Quebec sovereigntist publication Le Québécois author René Boulanger stated that Jean and her husband supported Quebec independence. Boulanger also stated that Jean's spouse, Jean-Daniel Lafond was friendly with former Quebec terrorists. 10
Boulanger reported that he had often visited Jean's home and that during one of these visits, Lafond told him that Jacques Rose, a former member of the terrorist FLQ, had built a bookshelf for the couple. Rose was a member of the FLQ cell which kidnapped and murdered Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte. Boulanger admitted that his statement was intended to cause English Canada to reject Michaëlle's candidature as the next Governor General. Following release of the article, Gilles Rhéaume, former president of the St-Jean Baptiste Society called on Jean to reveal how she voted in Quebec's 1995 referendum, which federalists won by a narrow majority. 11 Sovereigntists have a vested interest in causing a strong reaction in English Canada against francophone candidates which would alienate the public in Quebec. They have also been attempting to garner support amongst the francophone immigrant community, and a high profile federal appointment of this sort does not help their case.
Calls from a few members of parliament and by some of the provincial premiers for Jean and her husband to reveal their sympathies were met with a statement from the Prime Minister that the two had undergone a thorough background check by the RCMP and CSIS, standard procedure for appointment to such a high-profile position. 12 The August 17 ion of La Presse contained the information that Jean had appeared in a video documentary toasting "to independence" in a Montreal bar with several hard-line separatists. In the video she made the statement: "Independence can't be given, it must be taken."
On August 17, Jean responded to the controversy, with the following statement:
- I want to tell you unequivocally that both Lafond and I are proud to be Canadian and that we have the greatest respect for the institutions of our country. We are fully committed to Canada. I would not have accepted this position otherwise.
She also clarified that she and her spouse "have never belonged to a political party or the separatist movement." Following Jean's statement, Martin responded "There is no doubt in my mind that her devotion to Canada is longstanding and resolute," 13 although some critics continued to argue that her response remained too vague.
Another minor controversy concerned her French citizenship. A section of the French civil code forbids French citizens from holding government or military positions in other countries and, as Commander-in-chief of the Canadian Forces and as de facto head of state, Jean would hold both military and government positions, however the law is rarely applied. The French embassy stated that there was "no question" of the law's being enforced in Jean's case. This is mainly because the role of Governor General is mainly ceremonial.
However, on September 25, two days before her scheduled appointment to the position, Jean made a statement renouncing her French citizenship, putting this controversy to rest. 14
Investiture of the 27th governor general
At her investiture on September 27, 2005, Jean declared, "the time of the two solitudes referring to Quebec and the rest of Canada is past." In her speech, described as "moving," Jean set aside the usual platitudes. She called for protection of the environment, the shielding of culture against globalization and an end to the marginalization of young people. According to one media account, "w/. the pomp and circumstance of Canada's most significant state function were blended with humour, passion and even tears." 15 Globe and Mail columnist, John Ibbitson, reflected the general captivation with the new governor general in the following way:
- "Here is this beautiful young Canadian of Haitian birth, with a smile that makes you catch your breath, with a bemused older husband by her side, and a daughter who literally personifies our future, and you look at them and you think: Yes, this is our great achievement, this is the Canada that Canada wants to be, this is the Canada that will ultimately make way for different cultural identities." 16
Arms
Following her installation as Governor General, a personal coat of arms for Jean was unveiled. The arms depict her Haitian 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 Haitian 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 They desire a better country.
Honours
- 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
- Canadian Forces Decoration
References
- ^ Prime Minister Paul Martin's Announcement August 4, 2005
- ^ Stephen Harper's remarks August 4, 2005
- ^ Governor General Clarkson's reaction to the appointment August 4, 2005
- ^ NDP's Reaction August 5, 2005
External links
- Governor General of Canada website
- Rideau Hall statement on the appointment
- CBC News Indepth profile of the new Governor General
- Magazine: New governor general a sovereigntist
- CTV.ca - GG-designate challenged on 1995 Quebec referendum vote
- Liberal Party of Canada: Biography of Michaëlle Jean
- Buckingham Palace statement on Queen's approval of appointment
- Statement by the Governor General Designate on her appointment
- La Quinzaine Éducation-Médias: Biographie de Michaëlle Jean (in French).
| Preceded by: Adrienne Clarkson |
Governor General of Canada 2005– |
Succeeded by: incumbent |
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Governors General of Canada | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Monck | Lisgar | Dufferin | Lorne | Lansdowne | Stanley | Aberdeen | Minto | Grey | Connaught | Devonshire | Byng | Willingdon | Bessborough | Tweedsmuir | Athlone | Alexander | Massey | Vanier | Michener | Léger | Schreyer | Sauvé | Hnatyshyn | LeBlanc | Clarkson | Jean | |||