Center Stage Magazine

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada

The Governor General of Canada is the vice-regal or viceroy representative in Canada of the Queen of Canada , who is the head of state. A viceroy is a royal official who governs a country in the name of and as representative of the monarch.

Canada is one of sixteen British Commonwealth realms, all of which share the British monarch as their royal leader. The monarch appoints the Governor General on the advice of the Canadian Prime Minister, who is the Canadian Head of Government, after which the Governor General maintains direct contact with the British monarch. There is no specific term.

Michaelle Jean was born in Port au Prince, Haiti. She immigrated to Canada with her family in 1968, fleeing the dictatorial regime of the time.

After pursuing Masters studies in comparative literature at the University of Montreal she taught at the Faculty of Italian Studies at the same university. Three scholarships allowed her to pursue her studies 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 Creole.

During her studies, Ms. Jean worked for eight years with Quebec shelters for battered women, while actively contributing to the establishment of a network of emergency shelters throughout Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. She later ventured into journalism and became a highly regarded journalist and anchor of information programs at Radio-Canada and CBC Newsworld. She also took part in documentary films produced by her husband, filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond.

As the current Governor General of Canada , Michaelle Jean is entitled to be styled Her Excellency while in office, and The Right Honourable for life; given current practice, she will be sworn in to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada after her term as the Queen's representative has ended.

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