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Michaëlle Jean, social activist, journalist, documentary filmmaker, governor general (b at Port-au-Prince, Haiti 6 Sept 1957). Jean's early years were spent in a middle-class neighbourhood in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, where her father was principal and teacher of philosophy at an elite, Protestant preparatory school. She was educated at home because her parents, Roger and Luce, did not want her to attend school, where she would have to swear allegiance to dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. In 1965, her father was arrested and tortured. In 1967 he fled to Canada; his wife and two daughters joined him the next year.
The family settled in THETFORD MINES, a Québec mining town, where Roger taught at the local college. Jean later recalled that her father was, by this point, a "broken man," increasingly prone to violence. Her parents' marriage disintegrated, and Jean moved to Montréal with her mother and sister. They lived in a basement apartment, while their mother supported the family by working first in a clothing factory and then as a night orderly in a psychiatric hospital. Jean attended the UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL, where she received a bachelor's degree in Italian and Spanish. She began a master's degree in comparative literature at the Université de Montréal, taught Italian at that institution, and won scholarships that allowed her to make several trips to Italy to study at universities in Perugia, Florence, and Milan. She became fluent in five languages (French, Haitian Creole, English, Italian, and Spanish). She was also an activist on the issue of domestic violence, working with shelters for battered women and coordinating a government-funded study on spousal abuse during her time in university. In 1986, Jean returned to Haiti with a friend to conduct research for an article on the island's women. The two arrived to witness the ouster of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, the country's dictator and son of the man whose regime Jean's family had fled. Jean's work caught the eye of a NATIONAL FILM BOARD producer, who invited her to return to Haiti as a researcher and interviewer for a film on the 1987 Haitian elections, shown on Le Point, a newsmagazine program on Radio-Canada, the French language arm of the CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION. When Radio-Canada subsequently hired Jean, she became the first black person on French television news in Canada. She worked as a reporter or host for several of the network's programs, including Actuel, Montréal ce soir, and Virages. In the mid-1990s, she moved to RDI, Radio-Canada's all-news network, becoming host of le Journal RDI and other programs, winning many awards along the way, including a Gemini. By 2004, she was well enough known among Francophone Canadians to launch her own current affairs show on RDI, entitled Michaëlle. In English Canada, she was familiar to viewers of CBC Newsworld's documentary programs The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts, both of which she had hosted since 1999. With filmmaker husband Jean-Daniel Lafond, Jean made several documentaries in the 1990s, including Tropique Nord (Tropic North), about the black experience in Québec; the award-winning Haiti dans tous nos rêves (Haiti in All Our Dreams); and L'heure de Cuba, on the 40th anniversary of the Cuban revolution. In August 2005, Prime Minister Paul MARTIN announced Jean's appointment as governor general, news that sparked controversy. A Québec sovereignist publication suggested that Jean and her husband had supported the separatist cause in that province. At first, Jean refused to respond, but then issued a brief statement insisting that she had never belonged to the separatist movement. Debate over her dual citizenship (she became a French citizen when she married Lafond, who was born in France) subsided after she renounced her French citizenship shortly before taking office. Sworn in on 27 September 2005, she succeeded Adrienne CLARKSON. Jean became the first black person to serve as governor general. The descendant of slaves, she used her office to passionately emphasize freedom as a central part of the Canadian identity. Reflecting on her experience as an immigrant, Jean argued that it was time to "eliminate the spectre" of the two solitudes, French and English, which had long characterized the country's history.
 Jean, MichaëlleThe Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada (photo by Sergeant Éric Jolin, courtesy Rideau Hall).
Author
STEPHEN AZZI
Links to Other Sites
Citizen Voices
Chat on-line with Their Excellencies the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Mr. Jean-Daniel Lafond, and other citizens across the country. Share your thoughts on important issues of the day.
Governor General of Canada
The official website for the Governor General of Canada features biographies of current and former Governors General, a summary of official duties, a history of the Canadian Heraldic Authority, and an overview of various honours and awards, such as the Order of Canada.
Michaëlle Jean
This CBC website offers a profile of the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Canada's Governor General.
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