♪ >> Valerie: Welcome to Canada Files .

I am Valerie Pringle.

The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean came to Canada as a girl, a political refugee from Halïti.

She went on to have a successful career as a journalist, and at 48, she was appointed Canada's 27th Governor General, Commander-In-Chief and the representative of the Queen.

She was the youngest and the first black woman to hold that role.

As she has said: 'my own adventure shows that anything is possible.'

Madame Jean, hello!

>> Michaëlle Jean: Hello Valerie, how are you?

>> Very well.

You've said: "I'm a women of African decent from Halïti who came to Canada with her fa mi ly as political refugees" And you became the first black Governor General.

How do you see that arc?

How do you understand that?

>> It's hard to understand but I know where I come from, I know where the journey has been.

I know how I could connect with Canadians from that experience, because so many of us have that in common.

We share that experience of coming - and from how challenging life is- It was quite amazing to have to put my roots down in this territory.

What made a difference, actually something very special, when we had just arrived in Canada and we were completely lost; it was a matter of life or death and we needed asylum.

I couldn't figure out what this country was about; except that we were happy to be free and safe.

One day, my parents took me to get us a dagay on Mohawk territory and I could relate, I could relate.

There was a great line that you had, I remember, you were 11 when you came to Canada and you went to a rural Quebec mining town, Thetford Mines.

You said: 'I may as well have been Neil Armstrong with that step onto the moon, this step into this new life was that extreme.'

>> We were the only black family in Thetford Mines at the time.

It's a small mining community and people were very curious.

They wanted to touch us, some overprotective, some yeah, surprise, others a bit reluctant, yeah.

But it wasn't my first experience of racism It didn't happen here in Canada, because... ...from the experience of alienation, coming from colonization, racism also exists in Halïti.

Colonization was about dividing people your complexion, your skin tone; the lighter you are, the more you are considered esthetically nice and maybe a bit superior.

It's crazy, it's absolutely crazy.

And so what shocked me when I arrived in Thetford Mines, and I saw that kind of reluctance to the others, I thought, how sad because history has failed us it could have been so different but with this colonial ideology of dominating, dispossessing, of white supremacy, we end up with this legacy of characterization by race.

The thing that really helped, is knowing exactly where I'm from, being proud of my history, my legacy, my connection to the land.

And my mother was a good listener she was very generous and she would always say 'you have to understand what is happening around you.

Indifference cannot be an option even when it hurts, even if it hurts and it's difficult, you need to understand and know you can also make a difference.'

>> Well you know the idea that indifference is not an option obviously stuck with you.

>> Yeah.

>> Even at University, you we're involved in women's shelters and studying about domestic violence, this issue particularly, made an impact and you felt you had to stand up to injustice even then.

>> Of course, of course.

My mother was a feminist.

She educated me as a feminist.

A very proud independent woman, like my grandmother.

My grandmother raised - she was a widow at a very young age and she raised her five children alone on the sewing machine sewing clothes that she would sell in the market and with one idea in mind always that all her children, boys and girls, would go to school and have a good education.

And she managed to do so.

And she would always say that education is the key to freedom .

That was her thing, we would listen to her and my mom was like that too, she was a teacher, she believed in education, very proud.

So when we arrived in Canada, to answer your question, the first thing she said: 'if you want to be a really proud Canadian citizen, do your best and help others and join the feminist movement in Quebec.'

So that's how - I was like 16 or 17 - and I started that amazing commitment.

And being one of the women who worked hard to build this biggest network of shelters forbattered women and their children.

So I'm very proud of that.

You have to be a mover and a shaker you have to make sure that everyone is aware of what this is about.

It's women's rights and human rights and a company of women who are experiencing a very difficult time.

That is something I knew about.

I saw my mother going through it.

I've learned everything working with women, everything .

It helped me also as a journalist later.

>> You were obviously a brilliant student and linguist.

How many languages?

5 languages?

>> Yes, I speak 5 languages.

>> And you studied Italian, you went to Italy and studied.

You speak French, Halïtian, English, French.

>> I can read and I understand Portuguese - yeah, no problem.

>> You we're drawn to journalism and partly -- you talked about passion and resolve.

Journalism wasn't about being on TV, it was really about telling stories.

>> It was like a responsibility, that's how I understood journalism, that's how I practice journalism, raising awareness, sharing information, and making sure that people understood, the issues that we're confronted to.

>> You had so many firsts in your life.

You were the first black TV reporter in Quebec, black Governor General, the first woman to be the head of la Francophonie.

There were a lot of firsts.

I get the feeling you kind of like that.

'Just let me break that door down.'

>> Yes!

Let me break that door down, let me break down the solitudes.

Let me open a window for others to see, on these realities that remain invisible.

Let me help people's voices to be heard.

And it's not about being the first .

It's about opening new doors and making sure that people understand what's happening around them just like my mother taught me.

You need to understand .

I was never, even as child, in a bubble of innocence.

And it was heavy on my shoulders but it made me the person I am.

>> When you got the call from the Prime Minister, you we're 48 like you're young, prime of your career but mostly known in Quebec and he said: 'we'd like you to be Governor General of Canada, Commander-in-Chief, representative of the Queen'... >> Well, those were not exactly his words.

>> (laughs) What did he say?

>> First, I had many people coming to me and I said 'well, if this is what I think he wants to talk to me about, I have to think about it.'

Because I couldn't go there without vision, without knowing exactly what I could do, what someone like me, could do.

>> How would you embody it?

>> How would I embody it?

How I'd be serving Canada, the country that gave me so much.

To become a Canadian citizen, is huge .

Especially, when you come from a place, where you had no rights.

So I took 4 weeks to decide.

Normally people jump on the car- I took four weeks .

They kept coming back to me and saying, 'what's taking you so long?'.

And I would say, 'I'd need to think about it.'

So that's how I started imagining what I would do.

>> And what did you come up with?

Even now, from - in hindsight how did you embody that role?

>> First, I thought - and I know that some people, when I said my motto would be about 'breaking down solitudes' thought that I was thinking about the two solitudes because I'm a Francophone.

>> French-English >> French-English, I'm from Quebec.

It wasn't about that.

There are so many solitudes in our country, in our societies, somany solitudes.

I thought that Canadians didn't know the country very well.

I myself had so much to discover about Canada.

So I thought, 'how about working on not what our differences are about, but what we have in common?'

How about criss-crossing Canada and going from one community to another, and looking also at how young people are doing?'

So, not bringing them to me, but going where they are .

>> There are many people who'll be watching this in America who don't know about a head of state in Canada or you know - because they, of course - the President is head of state and head of government, and in Canada, the parliamentary system is separate.

So that you have constitutional responsibilities, and inspirational responsibilities, but it is a very separate role from the Prime Minister, who's the head of government.

>> Of course, the Prime Minister is the chief of government.

The Governor General and Commander-In-Chief doesn't have executive powers but we have a moral duty of bringing Canadians together, and making people understand that we have so much in common, and how we do things from one part of Canada to the other, and I enjoyed doing that.

>> You are Commander-In-Chief, too and you had a real connection with the military.

>> I had a real connection because we, at the time, were deployed in Afghanistan.

General Hillier taught me everything, from donning the uniform, to understanding that we were going to lose a lot of soldiers.

From Kabul, we were deployed to Kandahar which was really the most difficult place because that's where the Taliban were.

So I went to Afghanistan three times of course to support the troops but also to engage with Afghan communities - Afghan women and men of great courage.

I had said to the chief of defence's staff 'I need to hear from Afghans themselves why we're here and then I will share that with Canadians who don't understand why we're in Afghanistan'.

And that connection was really important- even donning the uniform for me was difficult.

But it was an army - Canadian Forces were about ethics, rules , rights , and it was very different from what I had experienced in Halïti where the militaries were about repression, killing and -it was a predatory regime.

>> As you became Governor General, you had to go meet the Queen, people must love this story, that you went to Balmoral with your 6 year-old daughter.

Must have been a quite an unbelievable experience.

>> It's part of tradition before being installed as Governor General, you have to meet the Queen.

She would never want to interfere in Canadian affairs, but we had the most amazing conversation.

Can you imagine, the most improbable thing, me being of Halïtian origin where decolonization started, sitting with Her Majesty Elizabeth II, heiress of an empire of slavers and a colonial empire.

So there was this big elephant in the room.

We were alone, just two of us, sitting next to each other.

She wanted us to be sitting on the sitting on the same couch.

Two women... ...and I said to her: 'Your Majesty can you imagine how improbable this meeting is?

You know exactly where I come from.'

She said, 'Of course I know.'

And I said, 'Here we are and I'm free, and me being free, and people like me being free, also makes you free.'

And from there, started a conversation that was so.. rich .

She started to tell me how she was born in colonial times and then she had to adapt to different times and accompany the decolonization process.

Imagine just one life... Then she worked in the second World War with the Red Cross.

She, for the first time, got a professional skill as... >> Driver!

>> No one knew who she was!

She was a citizen among other citizens, in a difficult time.

And when she was crowned, she was the first sovereign who spoke directly to the people, not her subjects, but to the people on the radio and you could hear her voice.

That made her very special.

And that conversation could've not happened.

But I'm so glad that it did, because we were two women speaking to each other, from a historical perspective because we still live with that legacy, and she knows that.

We still live with the consequences and the devastating impact of colonial legacy.

So it's like a rebirth.

To understand racism today, you need to go back and confront history, otherwise the future takes its revenge.

I feel so honoured that I was part of launching the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and to see where it is taking us today.

This is a moment, where we can decide how we want to live together.

Same thing, there's a special connection between indigenous people and black people.

When you look at Statistics Canada the most on underserved communities in our country are black communities and indigenous communities.

The dispossessed and conquered peoples.

So that's why...

So that's why... >> Can you be hopeful then?

>> Can you be hopeful then?

When you look at this, because you've seen - you've been part of this journey yourself, and observing it.

>> What makes me hopeful is the truth.

It's important to address the truth, always.

It makes us stronger.

You need to have this courage.

Because even when I sat with the Queen, we both had courage.

One, mine to address this; Hers , to respond to it.

This is how you build a relationship.

Not through pretending - and we like that as Canadians, we like to say that - >> Be nice.

>> Oh, we're nice and we are not like the Americans- that's an American experience!

No!

Racism is also a reality in our country.

Racial profiling is also a devastating reality in our country and it makes people in danger.

So we need to address it, and once you address it, the energy that comes out of it.. we just had.. My foundation is about working with underserved youth across Canada.

The majority, as I've said, are indigenous and black youth.

To see young people having the capacity to encapsulate the reality, their experience, into powerful words and images using the Arts as an incredible tool to open spaces of dialogue, to make sure that we can have these difficult conversations but with them, move forward and decide what do we want to achieve together.

And together, we're stronger.

When I met Barack Obama when he came to Canada - it's tradition, only Trump didn't follow that tradition.

That tradition is, once your elected, your first state visit as an American President, is to Canada.

And I had followed Obama since his time as Senator, even before that, when he was a social worker.

And I..

I was looking forward to this moment where we would actually have an opportunity to meet and sit down together.

Obama comes down, we look at each other, it was Black History Month.

(laughs) February, Black History Month!

And he said, and we reflected upon that, 'who would have thought, that the Commander-in-Chief of Canada and the Commander-in-Chief of the United States would meet on this day, be in office at the same time and be both of African descent?'

If you look at the pictures, it's like... (whistles).. we're floating .

We can feel history, we are happy.

Let us rejoice; that was the thing.

When we sat down, during our conversation of course, he asked me a lot of questions about Halïti.

I told him a story about -- I was just back from Halïti.

There had been a natural disaster, hurricane and cyclone.

And I went to a community where everything was destroyed.

And we were with the crowd by the statue of all our heroes of the Halïtian revolution I was addressing the crowd and there are many young people and a young girl said, 'you are going to meet Barack Obama, right?

I'm sure you will.

Just tell him that if it wasn't for the Halïtian revolution he wouldn't be there, as the President of the United States and you, Michaëlle, would not be Governor General of Canada.

It all started here.

'I share that with him and ask, 'what do you think?'

[He says] She's so right.

>> Now I have one final question that we ask -- it has been part of the series, which is about being Canadian.

>> Yes.

>> So the question is, what does Canadian mean to you?

>> Being Canadian means to me, one thing.

We are always looking for solutions.

It's one thing I've witnessed as I've criss-crossed the country.

People are looking for solutions, to tackle issues that we are confronted to, and to become stronger.

And what beauty - not just the landscape!

We have an amazing , beautiful country, on an amazing, vast territory.

But it's also - how do I say that - the human scape.

>> You had a lot of time to think about that, about what this country is.

>> My first state visits, as representative of Canada, were in Africa.

I remember I started engaging in bilateral discussions with other heads of state many of them Latin American heads of state, African - They would say, 'you were not born in Canada.

You arrived in Canada as a refugee.'

I said, ' this is what Canada is about.

It is possible in Canada.'

>> Well you did a remarkable job representing Canada, certainly, and it's a pleasure to see you again.

>> Thank you, thank you very much for having me.

>> And we'll be back next week with another edition of Canada Files.

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