Western will culminate Black History Month hosting The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean Thursday, Feb. 29.
The 27th Governor General of Canada will deliver a lecture as part of the Robbins-Ollivier speakers’ series Speak on It!, presented in collaboration with Western’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity.
Jean sees Black History Month as a time to celebrate what Black Canadians have accomplished “to overcome difficulties, challenges and adversity and as an opportunity to come together and think about the world we want to live in, the change we all want to see right now.”
Another Black History Month, 15 years ago, put Jean as Canada’s first Black Governor General, greeting Barack Obama, the first Black President of the United States, as he landed in Ottawa for his first state visit.
Jean recalls the significance of that moment on Feb. 19, 2009, as Obama left the plane.
“Our eyes locked, and we smiled at each other. I was happy, and I could see he was happy too. We said, ‘Who would have thought that the commander-in-chief of the United States and the commander-in-chief of Canada, both of African descent, would meet on this day, in Black History Month, holding office at the same time?’”
“It was incredible and so improbable,” Jean said. “We felt we were in a moment in history that deserved to be celebrated for all those who came before us. President Obama said, ‘Let us rejoice!’ Our feet did not touch the ground, it was as if we were floating. There was a sense of immense responsibility when we sat down and spoke, but before that, when we were walking on the tarmac, we were laughing, we were rejoicing.”
Their Excellencies, the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, 27th Governor General of Canada (2005-2010) and Jean-Daniel Lafond welcomed the President of the United States of America, the Honourable Barack H. Obama at the Canada Reception Center of the Ottawa Airport, in Ottawa on February 19, 2009. Credit: Sgt Serge Gouin, Rideau Hall.
In today’s politically charged world, there seems less cause for rejoicing. But Jean chooses to see the current polarized climate as a lesson and reminder “to remain constantly vigilant, taking nothing for granted.”
Raised with resistance
There’s little, if anything, Jean takes for granted ─ least of all her Canadian citizenship.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1957, she came to Canada in exile, with her parents, fleeing the regime of dictator François Duvalier. By the time she arrived in Thetford Mines, Que. at 11 years old, Jean had witnessed executions and many other atrocities, including the torture and arrest of her father.
The former activist credits her parents for teaching her from an early age that “indifference wasn’t an option.”
“I had to understand that everything happening around you, even if it hurts, even if it is difficult, it isn’t just about you,” she said.
This learning and her early life experience instilled a form of resistance, allowing her to rise above slurs she was sometimes subject to as part of the only Black family in her small mining community.
“I was a child of gravitas,” she said. “Sometimes my parents thought they had maybe gone too far because I had opinions, I had a point of view.”
She also had immense strength, which continues to serve her today.
“I fear no one, I fear nothing. I’m someone who can take a lot of risks speaking the truth, strategically choosing where, when and why, because I saw my parents doing that.”
Breaking down solitudes
Jean, who is fluent in five languages, holds a bachelor of arts in modern literature and languages and a master’s in comparative literature from Université de Montréal. As a scholarship recipient, she studied at the University of Perugia, the University of Florence, and the Catholic University of Milan.
From 1988 to 2005, she was a journalist, presenter and news anchor, and the first person of Caribbean descent to be seen on French television news. She also worked on documentary films produced by her husband, filmmaker, essayist and philosopher Jean-Daniel Lafond.
In 2005, Jean was appointed Governor General, Commander-in-Chief of Canada. Not only was she the first Black woman to reach the highest constitutional office, but an individual “not born in Canada, a refugee asylum seeker and a person who had the experience of starting from nothing, who appreciates the power of citizenship, because as refugees, we were dispossessed of that,” she said.
But she ensured the role was not about her – it was about working with diverse communities, listening to others under her motto of “breaking down solitudes,” to “build bridges between Canadians across every barrier—language, geographic, cultural, economic and social.”
Jean’s is the only official portrait of past Governor Generals to include other people.
“I refused to just pose by myself. Every single person in that portrait is real, has a story,” she said.
One of the “immense privileges” Jean had as Governor General was to work with survivors of Canada’s residential schools to launch the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in October 2009.
“When the present doesn’t recognize the wrongs of the past, the future takes its revenge. For that reason, we must never, never turn away from the opportunity of confronting history together—the opportunity to right a historical wrong.” – The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, 27th Governor General of Canada
Empowering youth
As Jean’s five-year term ended in 2010, Haiti was devastated by a brutal earthquake. The United Nations immediately called upon Jean, as UNESCO Special Envoy, to support reconstruction efforts in her homeland.
In 2014, Jean was elected secretary general of La Francophonie, the first woman to lead this multilateral organization comprising 88 states and governments on five continents.
Today, as co-founder and co-chair of the Michaëlle Jean Foundation, Jean works in close collaboration with community cultural organizations, the private sector, local and government authorities, to empower youth to change their lives and to transform their environment through the arts.
Jean looks forward to her visit to Western, where she’ll provide her perspective on the importance of engaging Black youth and achieving Black excellence within our communities. She also wants to inspire all young people to be change makers in eradicating all forms of racism.
“I want every youth in the room to be more aware of what we need to achieve together. Every person in the room, every person in this world. I hear my parents speaking when I say that. You have to understand what’s happening around you. You have to understand your part in it and know you’re also part of the solution and that you can make a difference.”
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Speak on It, featuring the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean
Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024
4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
McKellar Room, University Community Centre (UCC)
Register to attend
Hosted by Western’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
