JEAN A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Has any governor-general generated as much interest as Michaelle Jean?
From her clothes, to her political beliefs, and now to her sense of
humour, Jean's every appearance and utterance has been analyzed and
scrutinized.

Part of the fascination is with Jean herself, a telegenic, expressive
woman with a background few Canadians have ever experienced or even
imagined. As a child, she fled Haiti with her mother, sister and
father after her father was tortured under the corrupt Duvalier regime.

The first storm to break out was over her supposed support for Quebec
independence. She made an unequivocal statement denying any such
leanings. That should be enough to lay the matter to rest. But it
hasn't been. Quebec poet Raymond Levesque first was delighted to be
awarded the governor-general's prize for poetry, then in a deliberate
piece of stage management, announced he would not accept it from Jean,
who, in his words, "betrayed" the separatist cause.

Next up for opprobrium was Jean's participation in a dance, part of a
performance by Metis, Inuit and First Nations entertainers at the
first participation by Canada's aboriginal soldiers in remembrance
services in France.

It takes a certain Calvinist cast of mind to object to the
governor-general joining a celebration of indigenous culture, but
Canada, it seems, is not short of the dour of spirit.

Humourlessness is another unfortunate characteristic we're in no
danger of running out of, unfortunately. Although, it has to be said,
there is a transparently political bent to the criticism voiced over
Jean's speech to the Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner Oct. 22.

At the dinner, politicians and the governor-general are invited to do
stand-up comedy. In previous years, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles
Duceppe was booed by reporters because his speech fell a long way
short of being funny. He stopped attending the dinner about five years
ago. NDP leader Jack Layton has also been urged to keep his day job.

But Jean got a lot of laughs. She joked about why Prime Minister Paul
Martin really appointed her: "not because I'm a woman or because I'm
an immigrant or because I'm black. He gave it to me because I'm hot!"

She made fun of PQ leadership front-runner Andre Boisclair's cocaine
use, saying "We can have sandwiches and Coke. Well, should Andre
Boisclair be there, it will be coke for sure." She also joked
Boisclair follows the party line. Boisclair was shocked: How dare Jean
behave in such an unseemly, inappropriate way for a public official?
Who is he kidding? Using cocaine while a cabinet minister, which he
admits to, is inappropriate. It's own his fault he is becoming a
public joke. We should thank Jean for breathing fresh life into an old
institution.