Jean loses support of Canada and Quebec

Governments to back Rwandan for global post

OTTAWA • The Canadian and Quebec governments announced Tuesday they are pulling their support for former governor general Michaëlle Jean to remain atop the international organization of French-speaking nations, backing instead the “consensus” candidate from Africa.

Jean — who has held the top position since 2014 — is up against Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo when members choose a new secretary general at la Francophonie’s summit in Armenia Thursday and Friday.

The ex-governor general was considered a long shot to keep her position after France and the African Union publicly backed Mushikiwabo.

Quebec premier-designate François Legault tweeted Tuesday that his government would not support Jean and would join what he called the “African consensus.”

Hours before he was scheduled to board Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plane for the summit, Legault released a written statement saying, “Africa has enormous potential, both for our economy and for the future of the French language. That is why I intend to support a candidacy from this continent.”

Mushikiwabo reacted to Legault’s statement by tweeting, “Quebec’s support for the African candidacy is highly appreciated; it is the illustration of positive solidarity in the French-speaking world!”

A spokesman for the federal minister responsible for la Francophonie, Melanie Joly, said in an email Tuesday that Canada would also support the “consensus” candidate.

Canada is ready to “rally around the consensus, which is the way la Francophonie wants to go about it,” wrote Jeremy Ghio.

Jean did not immediately react publicly to the statements by Canada and Quebec. Her spokesman, Bertin Leblanc, told The Canadian Press Monday that she wasn’t planning on giving up.

“I’ll confirm she’ll be there until the end and probably beyond,” Leblanc said.

It had seemed a perfect role for Jean after her time in the spotlight at Rideau Hall. The first woman to become secretary general of la Francophonie, she promised to promote gender equality, economic development and greater co-operation with African partner nations.

But Jean has been dogged by accusations of excessive spending during her time as head of la Francophonie.

Quebecor media outlets reported she spent $500,000 renovating her rented Paris residence, as well as $20,000 on a piano.

While those expenses were seen as extravagant, a better explanation for Jean’s waning support comes from the current geopolitical situation, said Jocelyn Coulon, a Quebec scholar and author of Un selfie with Justin Trudeau, a book about foreign policy under the current government.

Everything changed when French President Emmanuel Macron announced in May that he would support Mushikiwabo, around whom African members have coalesced.

“At the moment the president of France stepped up and said ‘I back the Rwanda candidate,’ the expenses took a back seat,” Coulon told the National Post.

“I think it’s a question of geopolitics. France has a plan for consolidating its presence in Africa, because it is challenged by China and other powers.”

The Canadian government has started to think in the longer term and will ultimately prioritize consensus at la Francophonie, Coulon predicted before the federal government’s announcement Tuesday. “Do we want to jeopardize our relations with African countries at the moment that we are looking for votes for our bid at the (United Nations) Security Council?” he said.

Coulon added that it wouldn’t surprise him if the French were asking Trudeau, behind the scenes, to convince Jean to simply withdraw her candidacy.

That’s what Alupa Clarke, the Conservatives’ deputy critic for la Francophonie, is advocating for, on the basis of what he called Jean’s “terrible” spending.

“Behind the scenes, Canadian diplomats are probably asking Michaëlle Jean to not propose her candidacy (this week),” the Quebec MP said. “The right thing is to ask her to not propose her candidacy, for the goodness of the organization and the issues.”

The Rwandan candidate, for her part, has also had to endure criticism over her country’s human rights record and for choosing to replace French with English in its teaching curriculum in 2010.

However, Coulon pointed out that some 20 of la Francophonie’s 54 member states are dictatorships or authoritarian regimes, and Jean appears to have been able to work with them.

If Mushikiwabo is victorious, the world’s Frenchspeaking nations organization will be led by someone from a country where less than one per cent of the population speak French — chosen at a summit in Armenia, where the percentage may be even lower.

Many of the organization’s 84 members, associates and observers do not have French as their official or common language, which raises the question: what purpose does it serve, and why do non-French speaking countries want to join?

It’s all about the power of networks, said Martin Normand, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Ottawa.

“French remains the second international language, and there are countries who want to rely on French to integrate into international networks,” he said.

“There may be countries in there that have trouble dealing with English and the Commonwealth and who see an alternative in la Francophonie.”