I went on the record saying the incoming G-G Jean's dual French citizenship was not a big deal, but it appears to be part of the foundation of a bigger problem. Courtesy of the Globe and Mail comes this:
...An article in the next issue of Le Québécois, the voice of the province's sovereignty watchdogs, says the group was crushed by Prime Minister Paul Martin's nomination of Ms. Jean and Mr. Lafond because separatists considered the duo as two of their own.
"She may be a host on Radio-Canada (a federal Crown corporation), but she's been soaking for ages in the sovereigntist atmosphere that characterizes her intellectual circle," Quebec novelist René Boulanger writes in the article. "Those who liked Michaëlle Jean have good reason to be disappointed."
..."Jean-Daniel Lafond was a declared sovereigntist," Mr. Boulanger asserted yesterday. "In close circles, we always considered him one of ours. . . . I find it ironic that a friend of the independence movement will be No. 2 at Rideau Hall."
..."If anyone's betrayed, it's the sovereigntist camp," she said. Mr. Lafond's greatest challenge will be keeping mum, Ms. Tremblay predicted. "He's a guy who loves to talk, and he has ideas. He'll have trouble not speaking up."
First off, it is in the separatists best interests to make Ms. Jean's appointed look bad, so grains of salt and all that. But if they indeed run with the separatist crowd this will hurt her appointment. Also, it appears most of her baggage is actually her husband. I am not sure how fair it is to judge her on her husbands opinions but if he is a separatist and he can't keep his mouth shut we could be in for quite a ride.
I guess when the job qualifications are a female, ethnic, allophone who works at the CBC you don't have enough choices to do proper due diligence. You know, I hope nothing comes of this. I really don't want embarrassmentment of having a separatist Governor-General. It just one step too far into jokesville for me. Time will tell.
Update: Here is the latest on this story via NealeNews.
..."In the nationalist circles, many people were sure that Mme. Jean and her husband were sovereigntists, many persons believed that," said Gilles Rheaume, president of the Quebec-based organization against Canadian corruption and propaganda and a former president of the Societe St-Jean Baptiste.
Rheaume said Thursday that Prime Minister Paul Martin should have checked Jean's credentials more carefully and called him "an amateur to name a person who many believe is a sovereigntist, to name this person head of state."
