Dave Waddell
Publishing date: Apr 05, 2022

Former Governor General Michaelle Jean was honoured with Assumption University’s Christian Culture Series Gold Medal Tuesday for a life filled with firsts and barrier-breaking accomplishments largely focused on helping underserviced young people, minority groups and Indigenous persons.

The Gold Medal has been awarded annually by Assumption University since 1941 to individuals who are outstanding exponents of Christian ideals.

“I’m really honoured by this because its criteria touches me,” said Jean, who became the nation’s first black Governor General in 2005.

“Faith is a universal value that can transcend divides. It helps break down solitudes in society and individuals and allows us to work to build a better world.

If the present doesn’t recognize the wrongs of the past, the future will take its revenge

I’m in some pretty amazing company with past winners.”

Jean joins past winners ranging from Nobel Prize winner for literature Sigrid Undset (1941) to renowned Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan (1971) to Emmy-Award winning actor Martin Sheen (2004).

While being honoured for her past Tuesday, Jean is very much looking to the future through the Michaelle Jean Foundation, which has a particular focus on education, culture and creativity among underserviced young people in Canada. Jean noted the irony and signs of progress in a descendant of Haitian slaves, who rose to become the first black Governor General of Canada, delivering words about the courage it’ll take to achieve truth and reconciliation with the nation’s Indigenous peoples in the oldest Catholic church west of Montreal Tuesday.

“I was governor general for the launching of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” said Jean, who arrived in Canada in 1968 as a refugee fleeing the violent, political oppression in her native Haiti.

“My parents taught me indifference was not an option. Speaking truth to power is something that has come along with me all my life.

“If the present doesn’t recognize the wrongs of the past, the future will take its revenge.”

Jean said that message has added significance considering it comes only days after Pope Francis offered the first apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the Residential School system abuses in Canada.

She noted there were more than 170,000 children taken away from their parents and Indigenous communities up until the 1990s and thousands never came back.

Jean said we must acknowledge the grief of so many that still ripples through Indigenous communities today.

“It was courageous of the Indigenous delegation in Rome to speak the truth to Pope Francis,” said Jean, who was making her first visit to Windsor.

“It took courage to do this and courage to listen to the truth and hear the facts. To offer an apology and accept responsibility and accountability I believe is what Pope Francis will do in Canada (this summer).”

Jean was also pleased that several members of the Sandwich First Baptist Church were in attendance. The church is the oldest active black church in Canada and was a key stop on the Underground Railway for slaves escaping the U.S.

“Haiti was the first nation to abolish slavery after the slaves rose up and threw out Napolean Bonaparte and the French,” Jean said.

In the remarkable journey that has been her life, Jean said how could she better serve has always been her calling. It’s what convinced her to accept the governor general’s position.

“I remember sitting down with her majesty Queen Elizabeth II and speaking about the historical significance,” recalled Jean, who added the British monarch was extremely supportive.

“Other world leaders wondered how it could be possible that a non-citizen and, if they’re being honest a black woman, could serve as head of state.

“What does that say about Canada? It says anything is possible.”

Source : Windsor Star, Apri 5th, 2022.

Dwaddell@postmedia.com
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