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### Viewing cable 09OTTAWA30,

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
09OTTAWA30 | 2009-01-13 16:04 | 2011-04-28 00:12 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Embassy Ottawa

`

    VZCZCXRO5815
    OO RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHMT RUEHQU RUEHVC
    DE RUEHOT #0030/01 0131645
    ZNR UUUUU ZZH
    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

`