Jean, Michaëlle

Jean, Michaëlle << zhahn, mee kah EHL >> (1957-…), served as governor general of Canada from 2005 to 2010. She was the first Black person to be chosen for that post. Jean was also the first person from the province of Quebec to be named to that office since Jeanne Mathilde Sauvé held it from 1984 to 1990. She was replaced by David L. Johnston. In 2010, the former governor general became UNESCO’s special envoy for Haiti.

Michaëlle Jean, governor general of Canada from 2005 to 2010
Michaëlle Jean, governor general of Canada from 2005 to 2010

Jean was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Sept. 6, 1957. In 1968, her family fled the regime of dictator Francois Duvalier and settled in Quebec. In 1984, Jean received a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Literature and Modern Languages at the Université de Montréal (University of Montreal). She also studied at universities in Florence, Milan, and Perugia, Italy. She speaks fluent English, French, Haitian Creole, Italian, and Spanish.

In 1988, Jean began working as a television journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She hosted a number of English- and French-language news programs, including “The Passionate Eye” and “Grands Reportages.” Jean received several awards for journalism, including the 1994 Anik Prize for information reporting, the 1995 Amnesty International Journalism Award, and the 2000 Galaxi Award for best information program host.

Jean also worked on a number of documentary films with her husband, French-born Canadian filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond. These include L’heure de Cuba (Last Call for Cuba, 1999), Haiti dans tous nos reves (Haiti in All Our Dreams, 1995), and Tropique Nord (Tropic North, 1994).