Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin (left) and Governor-General-designate Michaelle Jean arrive for a news conference in front of the Senate chamber on Parliament Hill in Ottawa yesterday. Jean, who will become Canada's first black Governor-General, will take up her new position on September 27. - REUTERS
TORONTO (AP):
PRIME MINISTER Paul Martin formally announced yesterday the appointment
of Michaelle Jean, a Haitian-born television journalist based in Quebec, as the next Governor-General of Canada.
Jean, 48, one of the youngest people ever named as Queen Elizabeth II's representative to Canada, is the country's first black Governor-General, a mostly ceremonial, but highly public position.
She succeeds Adrienne Clarkson, who will step down in September after six years at Rideau Hall.
"Born in Haiti, she knows what it is to come to a new country with little more than hope," Martin said. Jean came to Canada as a child when her family fled the brutal regime of dictator François (Papa Doc) Duvalier in Haiti.
The award-winning journalist has been a regular contributor to CBC Newsworld's The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts documentary programmes.
