PARIS -- In her first state visit to France, Governor-General Michaëlle Jean has been extolled in the media as the "almost Queen of Canada" and a symbol of successful multiculturalism - and all in this decidedly anti-monarchist country where immigration is widely seen as a problem.
"I perceive my role as a kind of catalyst," she said in an interview yesterday. "And I find myself in that role here."
Ms. Jean met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and is scheduled to join him again today in Normandy for memorial services marking the anniversary of the Second World War armistice in Europe. They are also to visit a Canadian military cemetery.
In interviews with the French press, Ms. Jean said one of her aims is to impress upon French officials that French-speaking Canada extends well beyond Quebec. While her comments were welcomed in Paris as confirmation of the health of what the French call the francophonie, they prompted indignation from the Bloc Québécois. Pierre Paquette, the Bloc's deputy leader, called Ms. Jean's statements an insult to Quebeckers.
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The other theme to Ms. Jean's visit was the 400th anniversary celebrations of the founding of Quebec City. She will spend half a day in La Rochelle, the port city that was the embarkation point for Samuel Champlain, founder of Quebec, and for later French settlers sailing for Canada in the 17th and 18th centuries.
But Premier Jean Charest's absence at Quebec City's 400th anniversary kickoff celebrations in France created a furor in the Quebec National Assembly yesterday.
Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois accused Mr. Charest of failing his responsibility to defend Quebec's identity abroad, leaving it up the "representative of the Queen of England" to mark the event.
She accused the Quebec Premier of deliberately allowing the federal government and the Governor-General to create the perception that the 400th anniversary celebrations marked the "beginning of Canada rather than the foundation of Quebec."
Mr. Charest defended his government's close ties with France, noting that he has met Mr. Sarkozy three times since his election a year ago, and that Ms. Jean is a Quebecker capable of representing "the Quebec nation.''
"There is no contradiction in having the Governor-General of Canada representing in France the Quebec nation and its direct and privileged relations with France," he replied. In fact, he added, "we are proud of the fact that Quebec founded Canada."
Mr. Charest will be in France next week where in Bordeaux and then later in Paris he will underscore the close economic ties his government has attempted to build with France over the course of his mandate.
Ms. Jean's remarks, in which she said she would urge her host to look beyond Quebec to remember that there are francophones across Canada, also prompted a barrage of indignation in Ottawa from the Bloc Québécois, which calls the vice-regal institution "ridiculous," The Canadian Press reported.
"I think France should go beyond Michaëlle Jean," Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said.
The founding of Quebec City in 1608 was about the Québécois nation, not about Canada, he said. And he loudly denounced the monarchy that Ms. Jean represents.
The Governor-General's visit coincided with an otherwise cheerless moment for the unpopular Mr. Sarkozy, who marked his first anniversary in office this week. It also provided the country with a rare display of friendship and admiration from one of its former colonies.
Mr. Sarkozy has frequently referred to Canada as a model for the selective immigration policy he wants to establish for France. He instituted regular performance reviews for his ministers and proposed a new tax on mobile phone and Internet providers, again saying he was inspired by similar Canadian programs.
At the same time, though, the French government has signalled a possible policy shift away from official neutrality on the issue of Quebec sovereignty.
Last month, Alain Joyandet, the French minister in charge of relations with francophone countries, said France considered the political question of separatism to be a "non-issue." But he also said Mr. Sarkozy favoured a "direct and privileged" relationship with the province that could include special agreements on trade and labour exchanges.
Ms. Jean's five-day state visit ends on Saturday with another ceremony in Bordeaux, once a thriving port for the African slave trade, where she will join French government ministers to commemorate France's abolition of slavery 160 years ago.
One of her public themes for her visit is what she called "the duty of memory." As the great-great-granddaughter of slaves, she said the Bordeaux leg of the trip would be a particularly personal undertaking.
"I know it's going to be a deeply emotional experience for me to be there on the docks in Bordeaux," she said, "there where at least one of my ancestors was probably selected for transfer ... and where slaves were loaded onboard the boats like cargo."
But Ms. Jean was more circumspect when asked whether France should apologize for its slave-trafficking. Two years ago, on a visit to a shipment point for African slaves in Ghana, she called on Africans to acknowledge their own role in the trade and received an apology from the government of Ghana.
"It's for France to work out its own path of grief, and that takes time," she said. "What's important is to take the journey and to do it calmly. A descendant of a slave is not more virtuous than the descendant of a slave-owner. What's important is to reflect together on this chapter of history."
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