Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean has described Canada as “a country of so many possibilities.” Her own story is proof of that.
Canada’s 27th Governor General was born in Port-au-Prince on Sept. 6, 1957, during the era of the Duvalier dictatorships in Haiti.
Her parents, Roger and Luce, were teachers. Roger and Luce’s marriage soon fell apart. Luce and the daughters moved to Montreal. To pay the rent on their basement apartment, Luce worked in a clothing factory and then a psychiatric hospital.
Michaëlle Jean completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Montreal, earning a degree in Spanish and Italian language and literature. By 1985, she was fluent in five languages: French, English, Italian, Spanish and Haitian Creole. She could also read Portuguese.
While completing her university studies, Michaëlle Jean was also deeply involved with helping women and children who were the victims of domestic violence. Her own mother had been such a victim.
Jean co-ordinated a groundbreaking study — published in 1987 — that looked at abusive relationships in which women were the victims of sexual violence at the hands of their spouses.
She won many awards for her journalism, including a Gemini in 2001. She also received awards from the Human Rights League, Amnesty International, CBC, the City of Montreal and the Canadian Association of Cable Television Providers. In 2003 she received France’s Médaille del’Ordre des Chevaliers de La Pléiade des Parlementaires de laFrancophonie for promoting francophone culture.
Jean was the third journalist in a row to be appointed to the viceregal post of Governor General. At her installation speech she said, “I know how precious that freedom is…. I whose ancestors were slaves, who was born into a civilization long reduced to whispers and cries of pain, know something about its price, and I know too what a treasure it is for us all.” At a Black History Month event in Montreal a few months later, she spoke about racial discrimination.
“It has no place in a society that prizes above all the values of respect, openness and sharing, which are paramount for me,” she told the audience.
Historians will probably best remember Jean for her political role, something for which very few past governors general are remembered. In 2008 she cut short a trip to Europe because of a political crisis in Ottawa. The opposition parties were threatening to defeat Stephen Harper’s minority government and replace it with their own coalition. Harper wanted her to prorogue Parliament before the opposition could pass a non-confidence motion.
In a June 9, 2009, interview on The Hour, she said, “It wasn’t an easy decision.” She consulted constitutional experts and she kept the prime minister waiting for over two hours while she decided.
“I was in a position where I could have said no. The decision in my mind had to be in the best interests of the country,” she told Stroumboulopoulos. “And I have no regrets,” she added. Parliament was prorogued and Harper’s government was saved.
According to University of Toronto political scientist Nelson Wiseman, that was when, “many Canadians woke up to realize that the Governor General might wield real power.”
On Sept. 30, 2010: Jean stepped down as Governor General. She officially became UNESCO’s special envoy in Haiti on Nov. 8, 2010.
Read full article here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/micha%C3%ABlle-jean-a-life-of-many-possibilities-1.910435
