Friday, September 30, 2005
Solitude
Her story is harrowing and inspiring. It’s about success, and about overcoming some of the most difficult obstacles imaginable. She arrives in Canada a refugee child, from a place where she recalls being “draped in barbed wire from head to toe” [cited in ‘New GG Calls for Unity,” by Norma Greenaway and Anne Dawson, CanWest News Service, 28 September 2005. Article posted at http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=4f0be531-e477-424b-9fa4-88045fcf62b0]. She becomes a successful journalist, a media star, a public figure suspected by some of flirting with Quebec separatists, and now this country’s newest Governor General. Michaelle Jean, 48, was sworn in as the 27th GG on 27 September 2005.
She understands dictatorship and has felt repression. Her first speech included remarks about how harsh life outside Canada can be. Yet her observations amounted to no grand worldview. Rather, her words were intensely personal. There is the mention of slavery, and of the harsh days before her family fled Haiti in 1968. “My own story begins as a young child in another country…I, whose ancestors were slaves, who was born into a civilization long reduced to whispers and cries of pain, know something about its [freedom’s] price, and I know too what a treasure it is for us all,” Jean observed [cited in http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=4f0be531-e477-424b-9fa4-88045fcf62b0].
Much of the time she spoke she dealt with domestic issues, explaining how conditions within Canada must change. The era of “two solitudes,” of French and English conflicts and disagreements, was a relic of the past. “Today's world ... demands that we learn to see beyond our wounds, beyond our differences for the good of all…We must eliminate the spectre of all the solitudes and promote solidarity among all the citizens who make up the Canada of today,” she observed at the swearing in ceremony. Jean pledged to remain “determined that the position I occupy as of today will be more than ever a place where citizens’ words will be heard, where the values of respect, tolerance, and sharing that are so essential to me and to all Canadians, will prevail” [Cited in CTV News, 28 September 2005. Story posted at http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20050927/governor_general_jean_050927/20050927?hub=CTVNewsAt11].
The Head of State is largely a ceremonial office. There have been times when Governors General have found themselves embroiled in the politics of the day, and their actions have been far from uncontroversial. While Jean begins her tenure with much support, there have been those who have gone on record noting just how political her appointment may be. Back in mid-August, just after the country began to learn about Jean, writer Arthur Weinreb noted “it is unlikely that [PM Paul] Martin knew much about Michaëlle Jean when he appointed her to be Canada’s next Governor General. All he really needed to know was that Jean was a Quebecker and a visible minority woman. The fact that she was a CBC info babe was just icing on the cake. The fact that she was a Quebecker and therefore might be a Quebec nationalist no doubt didn’t enter his mind” [Cited in “Michaelle Jean—A Great Canadian,” by Arthur Weinreb, Canada Free Press, 15 August 2005. Story posted at http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/weinreb081505.htm].
Much of what Jean said at her inaugural, and just how she said it, may be seen as a direct response to those who have been her critics. Hers is a tenure that says the office may be mired in domestic issues for some time, if not for a full five years. If this does happen, could there be an impact on either the substance or our perception of Canadian foreign policy in the years to come? John Ralston Saul, husband of former GG Adrienne Clarkson, once wrote “The Governor General should be much more involved in gathering together visiting cultural figures and Canadian cultural figures… The international reverberations of a cultural Governor General could be considerable. Those of a protocolaire Governor General are zero [cited in http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/articles/sovereignty_identity/culture_policy_gov_general.cfm].
Stan Markotich
Send comments to stanmarkotich@yahoo.com ¶ 8:25 AM
Her story is harrowing and inspiring. It’s about success, and about overcoming some of the most difficult obstacles imaginable. She arrives in Canada a refugee child, from a place where she recalls being “draped in barbed wire from head to toe” [cited in ‘New GG Calls for Unity,” by Norma Greenaway and Anne Dawson, CanWest News Service, 28 September 2005. Article posted at http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=4f0be531-e477-424b-9fa4-88045fcf62b0]. She becomes a successful journalist, a media star, a public figure suspected by some of flirting with Quebec separatists, and now this country’s newest Governor General. Michaelle Jean, 48, was sworn in as the 27th GG on 27 September 2005.
She understands dictatorship and has felt repression. Her first speech included remarks about how harsh life outside Canada can be. Yet her observations amounted to no grand worldview. Rather, her words were intensely personal. There is the mention of slavery, and of the harsh days before her family fled Haiti in 1968. “My own story begins as a young child in another country…I, whose ancestors were slaves, who was born into a civilization long reduced to whispers and cries of pain, know something about its [freedom’s] price, and I know too what a treasure it is for us all,” Jean observed [cited in http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=4f0be531-e477-424b-9fa4-88045fcf62b0].
Much of the time she spoke she dealt with domestic issues, explaining how conditions within Canada must change. The era of “two solitudes,” of French and English conflicts and disagreements, was a relic of the past. “Today's world ... demands that we learn to see beyond our wounds, beyond our differences for the good of all…We must eliminate the spectre of all the solitudes and promote solidarity among all the citizens who make up the Canada of today,” she observed at the swearing in ceremony. Jean pledged to remain “determined that the position I occupy as of today will be more than ever a place where citizens’ words will be heard, where the values of respect, tolerance, and sharing that are so essential to me and to all Canadians, will prevail” [Cited in CTV News, 28 September 2005. Story posted at http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20050927/governor_general_jean_050927/20050927?hub=CTVNewsAt11].
The Head of State is largely a ceremonial office. There have been times when Governors General have found themselves embroiled in the politics of the day, and their actions have been far from uncontroversial. While Jean begins her tenure with much support, there have been those who have gone on record noting just how political her appointment may be. Back in mid-August, just after the country began to learn about Jean, writer Arthur Weinreb noted “it is unlikely that [PM Paul] Martin knew much about Michaëlle Jean when he appointed her to be Canada’s next Governor General. All he really needed to know was that Jean was a Quebecker and a visible minority woman. The fact that she was a CBC info babe was just icing on the cake. The fact that she was a Quebecker and therefore might be a Quebec nationalist no doubt didn’t enter his mind” [Cited in “Michaelle Jean—A Great Canadian,” by Arthur Weinreb, Canada Free Press, 15 August 2005. Story posted at http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/weinreb081505.htm].
Much of what Jean said at her inaugural, and just how she said it, may be seen as a direct response to those who have been her critics. Hers is a tenure that says the office may be mired in domestic issues for some time, if not for a full five years. If this does happen, could there be an impact on either the substance or our perception of Canadian foreign policy in the years to come? John Ralston Saul, husband of former GG Adrienne Clarkson, once wrote “The Governor General should be much more involved in gathering together visiting cultural figures and Canadian cultural figures… The international reverberations of a cultural Governor General could be considerable. Those of a protocolaire Governor General are zero [cited in http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/articles/sovereignty_identity/culture_policy_gov_general.cfm].
Stan Markotich
Send comments to stanmarkotich@yahoo.com ¶ 8:25 AM
