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Michaëlle Jean, CC, CMM, COM, CD, governor general of Canada 2005–10, secretary general of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie 2015–19, social activist, journalist, documentary filmmaker (born 6 September 1957 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti). Throughout much of her life, Michaëlle Jean has been an advocate for women’s rights. After a notable career as a journalist and filmmaker, in 2005, she became Canada’s first Haitian and Black governor general. From 2015 to 2019, she served as the Francophonie’s first Canadian and female secretary general.
Early Life and Education
Michaëlle Jean's early years were spent in a middle-class neighbourhood in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Her father was the 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 Quebec 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 Montreal 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. There, she received a bachelor's degree in Italian and Spanish. She began a master's degree in comparative literature at the Université de Montréal and taught Italian at that institution. Jean notably 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).
Jean was also an activist on the issue of domestic violence. She worked with shelters for battered women and coordinated a government-funded study on spousal abuse during her time in university.
Career Highlights
In 1986, Michaëlle 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. She was invited to return to Haiti as a researcher and interviewer for a film on the 1987 Haitian elections, shown on Le Point, a news magazine program on Radio-Canada.
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. She won 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. These include Tropique Nord (Tropic North), about the Black experience in Quebec; 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.
Governor General
In August 2005, Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Michaëlle Jean's appointment as governor general, news that sparked controversy. A Quebec sovereigntist 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.
Jean was sworn in as governor general on 27 September 2005, succeeding Adrienne Clarkson. Jean became the first Black person to serve as governor general. The descendant of enslaved people, 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.
As governor general, Jean showed herself to be a passionate speaker and a photogenic presence. She used her office to advance human rights, support the arts, draw attention to socio-economic problems in the Canadian North, and promote Canada abroad, particularly in Africa and her native Haiti.
In December 2008, Jean agreed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's request to prorogue Parliament for seven weeks. Her controversial decision allowed Harper to escape defeat in the Commons, where the opposition parties had agreed to replace his government with a Liberal-NDP coalition led by Stéphane Dion. In keeping with Canadian parliamentary tradition, the governor general did not explain her reasons publicly.
On 1 October 2010, Jean was replaced as governor general by David Johnston.
Post-Viceregal Career
In 2010, Michaëlle Jean became UNESCO's special envoy to Haiti. She also created the Michaëlle Jean Foundation to help underprivileged youth in rural and northern Canada. Jean was named chairperson of the board of directors for the Institut Québécois des hautes études internationales at Université Laval in October 2010. She became the chancellor of the University of Ottawa in February 2012 but resigned in 2015 due to the frequent travel and extensive responsibilities associated with her position as secretary general of La Francophonie.
General Secretary of La Francophonie
In November 2014, Michaëlle Jean was elected secretary general of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. She is the first woman and Canadian to hold the position, which she officially took over in January 2015.
While she headed the Francophonie, critics scrutinized her budget spending. Criticism notably focused on the high amounts of money used to renovate her apartment in Paris.
Toward the end of her mandate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French president Emmanuel Macron both praised her work pushing for women’s rights. (See also Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy.)
In 2018, Jean aimed for a second mandate as secretary general. However, many, including the African Union and France, favoured the Rwandan foreign minister, Louise Mushikiwabo. As the Francophonie selects its leader by consensus, even Canada and Quebec eventually withdrew their support for Jean. After a controversial election, members of the Francophonie selected Mushikiwabo as the new secretary general instead of Jean.
Honours and Awards
In 2007, the École élémentaire publique Michaëlle-Jean in Barrhaven, Ontario was named after Michaëlle Jean.
In 2009, Jean received the United Nations Development Fund for Women Canada Award for her gender equality advocacy.
Outside of Canada, Jean received many awards and honours. In 2003, the Francophonie granted her the Ordre de la Pléaide. In 2014, she was promoted to the rank of the Grand Cross of the Order of La Pléiade. That same year, France granted her the prestigious Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.
According to Jean’s website, she has received 21 honorary doctorates from universities in Canada and abroad.
