Jean dismisses uproar
GOVERNOR GENERAL’S COMMENTS Reaction to speech called ‘ a strategy’ Leaders joined in spirit of press dinner
CHARLOTTETOWN— Governor General Michaëlle Jean believes the simmering controversy over her jokes about a Quebec politician’s admitted drug use is part of “ some kind of a strategy.”
Jean said yesterday during an official visit to Prince Edward Island that she is mystified by the outrage over her light- hearted comments at a recent press gallery dinner in Ottawa.
“ I think people have to know what this dinner at the press gallery is about,” said Jean, who was appointed Canada’s 27th governor general in September.
“ It’s an old tradition,” she said in an interview. “ I don’t know why people are focusing so much on my performance. There were other performances. Every leader of the political parties had their own performance, even the Prime Minister. So I think people have to see it as some kind of a strategy that is going on.”
Jean refused to comment further about who might be behind the strategy or why. She said she is trying to focus on her new duties, the future, and getting to know Canadians. “The rest is only noise, so much noise,” she said.
Jean joined in the spirit of the traditionally ribald press gallery dinner two weeks ago, poking fun at Parti Québécois leadership candidate André Boisclair, who has admitted using cocaine in the past. Among other comments, Jean joked that Boisclair always follows the party “ line,” a reference to the way the drug is usually consumed. But Jean’s jokes hit a sour note, especially in Quebec, her home province.
Editorial writers have lambasted her, and even her sister, Nadege Jean, a member of the Parti Quebecois, has complained publicly about the dinner comments. Nadege has said she believes her sister used the occasion to “ get even” with some in the separatist movement.
While Jean wouldn’t say who might be involved in a strategy to embarrass her and the viceregal position, her husband, Jean- Daniel Lafond, has been vocal in the past about what he believes is going on.
Lafond, a prominent filmmaker, has felt the sting of separatist criticism following Jean’s appointment as the Queen’s representative in Canada. Lafond called his separatist critics “ terrorists” during a recent interview on Radio- Canada, the French service of the CBC. He said he would have been killed had he been subjected to similar verbal “ terror” in Iran, which he recently visited.
“ If you were there, you’d be dead. That’s called terror,” Lafond said. “And that terror, when it is expressed in words, becomes extremely dangerous.”
Despite the controversy bubbling in the background, Jean’s visit to P. E. I., accompanied by Lafond and their daughter, MarieEden, was low key.
Jean was received warmly, if not effusively, at all her stops in the birthplace of Confederation.
It is only her second official provincial visit since her appointment earlier in the fall. Her first was to Manitoba.
Yesterday, she joined in celebrations marking the designation of the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown as a national historic site. The centre, built in 1964, is the only national memorial to the Fathers of Confederation.