Rt Hon Michaelle Jean
Polyglot journalist and documentary filmmaker, Michaelle Jean served as Canada's governor general between 2005 and 2010. Born in 1957, she was under fifty when she accepted the post.
Jean was born in Port au Prince. Her father, a school teacher, became a political prisoner and was tortured. On escaping from jail, he brought the family to Quebec, where Jean has lived since age eleven.
She earned her bachelor's degree at the Universite de Montreal where she mastered Spanish and Italian. Her fifth language is Haitian Creole.
Not surprisingly, she has worked for political freedom. Her social activism, which began while she was at university, focused first on assisting battered women by establishing shelters for them.
In 1987 she prepared a documentary on the Haitian elections that was shown on Radio-Canada, where she was later hired as a journalist. Jean worked on both English and French services, and on various programs, including a French-language one of her own.
One sad challenge Jean faced challenge during her term was to respond on behalf of Canada to the earthquake in Haiti, the land of her birth.
Since completing her tenure as the governor general of Canada, this energetic woman continues to support educational and cultural initiatives. The Michaelle Jean Foundation is a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the arts and creativity, in particular among youth from poor, rural and northern communities.
In 2010 she was named by UNESCO as a Special Envoy to Haiti. A member of the National Speakers Bureau, she recently spoke at UBC. Last month, she was installed as Chancellor of the University of Ottawa.