Jean, the second immigrant after Adrienne Clarkson to be named to the post, fled Haiti with her family in 1968 as violence under dictator Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier escalated.

She was 11 at the time.

The family wound up in Quebec, settling in the rural community of Thetford Mines. But rather than leaving their troubles behind, the family found life there, like the Northern climate, was harsh.

It was as a child in Montreal that Jean first encountered racist taunts. She recalled other children touching her black skin to see if she was real.

In a documentary of her life's journey produced a decade ago, Haiti in all Our Dreams, Jean recalled people calling her a "dirty nigger."

"They'd tell me to go home and wash."

In the end, however, Jean overcame the enormous obstacles to register some even more momentous achievements.

Jean received a Bachelor of Arts in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature, and continued her studies towards a Master of Arts in comparative literature at the University of Montreal. From 1984 to 1986, she taught at the Faculty of Italian Studies at the same university.

During the 1980's, she pursued linguistic and literary studies at the University of Perouse, the University of Florence and the Catholic University of Milan, all of which cited her for excellence. She is fluent in five languages: French, English, Italian, Spanish and Creole.

Alongside her studies, Jean also worked for eight years with Québec shelters for battered women. She took in, supported and accompanied hundreds of women and children in crisis, while actively contributing to the establishment of a network of emergency shelters throughout Québec and elsewhere in Canada.

She was also involved in aid organizations for immigrant women and families, and later worked at Employment and Immigration Canada and at the Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec.

Jean's sense of social commitment and her appreciation of national and international realities led her to journalism. Over the next 18 years, she became a highly regarded journalist and television anchor. She joined Radio-Canada in 1988, working successively as a reporter and host on such news and public affairs programs as Actuel, Montréal ce soir, Virages and Le Point.

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.

In 2001, Michaëlle Jean began anchoring the weekend editions of Radio-Canada's major news broadcast Le Téléjournal. In 2003, she became the anchor of Le Téléjournal's daily edition Le Midi.

In 2004, she started her own show, Michaëlle, which was broadcast on both French-language public television networks. This program featured a series of in-depth interviews with experts, enthusiasts and visionaries.

In the mid-1990s, Michaëlle Jean also participated in a number of documentary films produced by her husband, filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond: La manière nègre ou Aimé Césaire chemin faisant, Tropique Nord, Haïti dans tous nos rêves, and L'heure de Cuba. These thought-provoking documentaries were critically acclaimed and earned awards both in Canada and internationally.

Jean has won numerous honours for her professional achievements, including the Human Rights League of Canada's 1989 Media Award for her report titled La pasionaria, on the struggle of an immigrant woman in Québec; the Prix Mireille-Lanctôt for her report titled Partir à zér, dealing with spousal violence; the Prix Anik for best information reporting in Canada for her investigation of the power of money in Haitian society and the inaugural Amnesty International Canada Journalism Award.

Jean and her husband have a six-year-old adopted daughter, Marie-Eden. Their family also includes Lafond's two daughters from a previous marriage and his two grandchildren.

As Lafond was born in France and Marie-Éden born in Haiti, the entire vice-regal family is of non-Canadian and non-Commonwealth birth.