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Immigrant is new Governor-General |
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 How far can an immigrant go in Canada? Pretty close to the
top, as is apparent with the appointment of Haitian-born journalist
Michaëlle Jean as Canada's 27th Governor-General. The Governor-General
is the Queen's Representative in Canada.
The 48-year-old television journalist, who immigrated to Canada from
Port-au-Prince in 1968, takes over from another
immigrant, Adrienne Clarkson, who was born in Hong Kong of Chinese
parents.
Jean's family fled the regime of dictator François (Papa Doc) Duvalier when she was 11 years old.
"Born in Haiti, she has known what it is to come to a new country with
little more than hope, hope and a belief that with hard work a new
country can bring new opportunity," Prime Minister Paul Martin said in
announcing her appointment.
Martin called Jean an extremely talented woman who will bring a new perspective to the office.
“She is a reflection of that great quality of Canada, a
country which focuses on equality of opportunity,” Martin said.
Jean, in her first press conference, said she wanted to reach out to young people and the disadvantaged.
“I have come a long way,” she said. “My ancestors were slaves, they
fought for freedom. I was born in Haiti, the poorest country in our
hemisphere. I am a daughter of exiles driven from their home by a
dictatorial regime.”
In Canada, Jean studied at the Universite de Montreal and
went on to study at universities in Florence, Milan and Perugia, Italy.
She is fluent in five languages: French, English, Spanish, Italian and
Haitian Creole.
As she pursued her studies, Michaëlle Jean worked for eight years, from
1979 to 1987, with Québec shelters for battered women. She has taken
in, supported and accompanied hundreds of women and children in crisis,
while actively contributing to the establishment of a network of
emergency shelters throughout Quebec 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 Communautes culturelles du Quebec.
Jean’s sense of social commitment and her appreciation of national and
international realities led her to journalism. For 18 years, she has
been a highly regarded journalist and anchor of information programs.
She joined Radio-Canada in 1988, working successively as a reporter and
host on such news and public affairs programs as Actuel, Montreal ce
soir, Virages and Le Point.
Jean's background has parallels to Clarkson's; both had prominent careers at the CBC.
English viewers of CBC have known Jean since 2000, when she began
introducing documentaries on The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts, the
network's documentary shows.
But it is in French Canada where Jean made her name as a journalist.
She joined Radio-Canada, the CBC's French network, as a local reporter
in 1988 and before long her career was propelled into various roles as
reporter and presenter. Since 1995 she has worked on such shows as Le
Monde ce soir, L'Édition quebecoise, Horizons francophones, le Journal
RDI and RDI à lecoute.
Jean is married to Jean-Daniel Lafond. Their daughter, Marie-Eden, is
six years old. The family also includes Lafond’s two daughters from a
previous marriage and his two grandchildren.
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