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Montreal, Tuesday, May 29, 2007 Education is not a privilege. It is an acquired right in this country. Mind you, this concept is a relatively new one in our history. Historian Georges Langlois reminds us that at the beginning of the 19th century, country schools were set on fire in this province. An...

Rideau Hall, Friday, February 22, 2008 My husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and I are delighted to welcome you here to Rideau Hall to recognize the excellence you have come to embody in our society. Forty-one years ago, Prime Minister Lester Pearson founded the Order of Canada to commemorate this country’s...

Kitchener, Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Thank you for your kind invitation to be with you today. Let me first pay a tribute to the famous French philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, who would have been a hundred years old this year. I still remember how eager my mother was to introduce me to The Second Se...

Rideau Hall, Friday, February 29, 2008 As I read today’s citations, it occurred to me that reality can sometimes be more powerful than fiction. Books, movies and television often endow heroes with powers that others do not have. They can fly through the air, possess superhuman strength, see through ...

Niagara, Friday, February 29, 2008 It was with great pleasure and indeed conviction that I welcomed Jean‑Daniel’s proposal to create an award celebrating the nation’s table. Not just because the table serves as a meeting place, bringing people together, as Jean-Daniel has just reminded us. But becau...

Cuvée 2008 Niagara, Friday, February 29, 2008 A friend of mine is a chef. He was born in Europe but chose to live in Canada over 20 years ago. Once a month, he invites a few friends and other guests to join him around his table. They come from vastly different backgrounds, their origins as diverse a...

Rideau Hall, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 I would like to share with you my great admiration for the work you do every day for the benefit of all Canadians. I want you to know how grateful we are for your dedication, your sense of duty and your professionalism. I believe it is important that we recogniz...

Toronto, Friday, March 7, 2008 If you only knew how much I have been looking forward to joining you this evening. Particularly since the theme you have chosen this year has given me hope that we will unite voices, knowledge, hearts and minds. I would like to take this opportunity to salute the Métis...

Toronto, Saturday, March 8, 2008 I cannot begin to tell you how important it is for me to celebrate International Women’s Day with you. Women of the First Nations, women of the Métis and Inuit peoples, permit me to call you my sisters. Because I truly believe that we are all sisters. From us, as wom...

Latin America Film Festival 2008 March 19, 2008 A WONDERFUL GIFT! I would first like to say that as a filmmaker, and also as the husband and special collaborator of the Governor General of Canada, I am pleased and honoured to preside over this Latin American Film Festival. This is a unique event bec...

Rideau Hall, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 It is always a pleasure and an honour, as commander-in-chief of the Canadian Forces, to find myself in the company of men and women who are fulfilling a noble commitment—out of a sense of duty, out of a desire to make a contribution, out of an unwavering convic...

Montréal, Thursday, March 27, 2008 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY What a joy, what a pleasure it is to be here this evening. Jean-Daniel and I are absolutely delighted to be able to share this moment with you here at TOHU, in St-Michel, Montréal, and to be part of this unifying celebration of brotherhood. T...

Toronto, Wednesday, February 27, 2008 We have come a long way. For our triumph over slavery has made freedom the cornerstone of modern democracy. Freedom to be who we want to be. Freedom to vote. Freedom to express our views. Freedom to be full citizens. Yet in this era of instant gratification, nar...

Rideau Hall, Friday, March 28, 2008 It is a pleasure for Jean-Daniel and me to welcome you to Rideau Hall to continue the dialogue on the place that Canadian visual and media arts hold in our society, and to bring together this year’s award recipients and other artists, painters, creators and admini...

Rideau Hall, Friday, March 28, 2008 You know, for Jean-Daniel, for me, for the entire Rideau Hall team, one of the great pleasures of living and working in this residence is being surrounded every day by luminous, evocative, thoughtful images, thanks to the imaginations of our artists and the genero...

Presentation of the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts Rideau Hall, Friday, March 28, 2008 Good evening, How does our society view the visual and media arts and their creators, and consequently, do they get enough visibility here and abroad? That is the two-part question we tried to ...

Rideau Hall, Friday, April 4, 2008 It is with great joy that my husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and I welcome you to this residence, Rideau Hall, where the past and the present are interwoven in our memory. And to that memory we can now add the memories of artists who turned their gaze to an island large...

Ottawa, Monday, April 7, 2008 As I stand in this place of contemplation, of unity and gathering, I cannot help but be filled with emotion. Whenever I enter a cemetery, I feel as though I am opening the door to a library. Every tombstone is a book; every person at rest, a story. I often stop and take...

Rideau Hall, Friday, April 11, 2008 My husband Jean‑Daniel Lafond and I are delighted to welcome you to Rideau Hall to recognize the excellence you embody in our society. We are privileged to be in your company today—you, who represent the best in all of us. Since my appointment as governor general,...

Inuvik, Sunday, April 13, 2008 As soon as you set foot in Inuvik, what is perhaps most remarkable is its astonishing diversity. Inuvik is about the people: elders, youth, the Gwich’in, the Inuvialuit, the Métis, Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals, Anglophones and even some Francophones, living together...