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DE RUEHOT #0030/01 0131645
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O 131645Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8979
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 000030 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR CA
SUBJ: A MODERN ROLE MODEL: GOVERNOR GENERAL MICHAELLE JEAN 
 
REF: 08 OTTAWA 1511 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: As a former refugee and Canada's first Governor 
General of African/Caribbean heritage, Michaelle Jean is an 
evocative symbol of a modern, multicultural, and multiracial Canada. 
She is a popular and charismatic figure who has performed her 
largely ceremonial duties with grace and style, although some 
commentators raised concerns over her political inexperience at a 
time of political instability and minority government in 2008. End 
summary. 
 
FOUR VICE-REGAL TASKS 
 
¶2. (U) Head of State Queen Elizabeth II's representative in Canada 
is the Governor General, whom the British monarch appoints on the 
advice of the Canadian Prime Minister.  The Governor General's role 
is primarily ceremonial and is built on four major themes specified 
on Her Majesty's own website: representing the Crown in Canada; 
representing Canadians abroad and promoting Canadian sovereignty; 
celebrating excellence; and, promoting national identity and unity. 
 
 
¶3. (U) The Governor General summons, opens, and ends sessions of 
Parliament, gives Royal Assent to legislation, signs State 
documents, dissolves Parliament for elections, appoints the Prime 
Minister, and (on the advice of the Prime Minister) appoints and 
presides over the swearing-in of the Chief Justice, the Chief of the 
Defence Staff, and cabinet ministers.  The Governor General acts, 
with the advice of the Prime Minister, to ensure that Canada has a 
functioning government at all times.  The Governor General is also 
Commander-in-Chief of Canada's armed forces.  By convention, 
Governors General serve five year terms, but some have served up to 
seven years, at the request of the prime minister. 
 
 
¶4. (U) The Governor General also receives royal visitors, Heads of 
State, and prominent guests, accepts credentials of new ambassadors, 
and conducts State visits abroad. Madame Jean and her French-born 
husband Jean-Daniel Lafond welcomed President George W. Bush to 
Canada and met with him privately at the Ottawa International 
Airport on August 20, 2007, when he visited Canada for the North 
American Leaders' Summit at Montebello, Quebec. 
 
BIOGRAPHY 
 
¶5. (U) Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor 
General of Canada, was sworn in on September 27, 2005. She is 
Canada's 27th Governor General and is the third successive 
journalist to be appointed to the post. Madame Jean is Canada's 
first Governor General of African/Caribbean heritage, the first 
refugee, and the second (after her immediate predecessor, Adrienne 
Clarkson) "visible minority" Canadian in this position.  She has 
made disadvantaged youth and "breaking the solitudes" among racial, 
linguistic, and cultural and gender groups in Canada her main 
outreach priorities. 
 
¶6. (U) Madame Jean was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on September 
6, 1957.  In 1968, she and her family fled Haiti as political 
refugees and settled in Quebec, where she was raised by her (single) 
mother.  Madame Jean earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Italian and 
Hispanic languages and literature from the Universite de Montreal, 
studied toward a Master of Arts degree in comparative literature 
there, and, from 1984 to 1986, taught at the university's Faculty of 
Italian Studies.  She went on to study linguistics and literature at 
the University of Perugia, the University of Florence, and the 
Catholic University of Milan.  She is fluent in five languages 
(French, English, Italian, Spanish, and Haitian Creole) and has a 
reading knowledge of Portuguese. 
 
¶7. (U) In 1988, Madame Jean joined Radio-Canada (the French-language 
service of Canada's national broadcaster) and enjoyed an 
Qservice of Canada's national broadcaster) and enjoyed an 
award-winning career as a journalist and host of a wide range of 
news and public affairs programs in French and English.  Together 
with her husband, she also produced documentaries, including three 
critically-acclaimed films on the 40th anniversary of the Cuban 
revolution, the experience of being a person of color in Quebec, and 
reflections on her Haitian homeland. She has a life-long interest in 
helping women and children who are victims of domestic violence. 
Madame Jean and Mr. Lafond have one six-year old daughter, 
Marie-Eden, whom they adopted in Haiti.  Mr. Lafond has two adult 
daughters from a previous marriage and two grandchildren. 
 
POPULAR CHOICE. . . 
 
¶8. (SBU) In 2005, Liberal then-Prime Minister Paul Martin's choice 
of Michaelle Jean as Governor General came as a surprise to many 
Canadians; Martin, however, lauded Jean as a woman of talent and 
achievement whose "personal story is nothing short of extraordinary" 
and who is uniquely qualified "to represent all of Canada to all 
Canadians and to the rest of the world."  Most commentators welcomed 
the symbolism of her appointment, despite some doubts about her 
 
OTTAWA 00000030  002 OF 002 
 
 
political inexperience at a time of minority government, a minor 
controversy over her husband's alleged sovereignist sympathies, and 
criticism from the separatist Bloc Quebecois and Quebec 
sovereignists who saw the appointment as a Liberal ploy to gain 
seats in Quebec, especially among the large Haitian diaspora in 
Montreal.  However, federalists outside Quebec hailed her as an 
"inspired" choice who would "be a voice for Canada in Quebec and 
represent the new Quebec to the rest of Canada." 
 
. . . BUT NO LONGER STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY 
 
¶9. (SBU) Jean is an inspirational and charismatic figure who has 
carried out her ceremonial duties with grace and style.  She stepped 
into uncharted constitutional waters on December 4, when she acceded 
to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's request to suspend ("prorogue") 
Parliament briefly in order to avoid a vote of confidence in the 
House of Commons, which the government would have lost (reftel). 
The concern remains that she will again face a delicate choice in 
the coming year between calling a new election and asking the 
Liberal and New Democratic parties to form a virtually unprecedented 
coalition, should the government lose any upcoming confidence vote. 
As a result, some political commentators have stepped up their calls 
for future Governors General to have greater experience or training 
in constitutional affairs at a time when Canada likely faces 
continued minority government. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Madame Jean and Prime Minister Harper appear to have a 
cordial but cool relationship. Some Conservatives reportedly suspect 
her private sympathies lean to the center left of the political 
spectrum, and have suggested her husband's alleged separatist 
sentiments may influence her own political views.  Prior to the 
constitutional crisis in December, Prime Minister Harper had already 
reportedly discontinued the convention of regular, confidential 
vice-regal briefings to update the Governor General on political 
events and views. The lack of consultation underscores the largely 
ceremonial aspect of her role, but also increases her 
unpredictability in view of the office's theoretically important 
constitutional powers. 
WILKINS