Jean-Daniel Lafond
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Jean-Daniel Lafond, CC (b. 1944) is a French-born Canadian filmmaker, and the husband to Governor General Michaëlle Jean, making him the Viceregal Consort of Canada. He is entitled to be styled His Excellency while his wife is in office.
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[edit] Biography
Lafond was born in France during the liberation of Paris. He subsequently taught philosophy from 1966-1971 "while pursuing research in audio-visual training and communications". In 1974 Lafond left France for Quebec and became a Canadian citizen in 1984. After teaching at the Université de Montréal he left the university to focus on film-making, radio and writing.
From his first marriage Lafond has two daughters Estelle and Élise, as well as two grandchildren. With his current wife Governor General Michaëlle Jean he has daughter Marie-Éden (born 98 or 99), adopted from Haiti.
[edit] Controversy
When in 2005 his wife was nominated by Prime Minister Paul Martin as the next governor-general, controversy arose when his past resurfaced. While the personality of Michaëlle Jean was mostly accepted throughout Canada, Lafond himself had early on been suspected of being a Quebec separatist because of some of his movies. When an article in a sovereignist journal made its way to the press, alleging that Lafond had befriended a former FLQ (militant Quebec-separatist organization) member who had built for him a cache "to hide weapons" in his library, protest became louder, and many journalists and politicians accused the prime minister of having done too little research on Lafond's background. Later in August, his wife reacted to this in a formal letter announcing she and her husband "had never adhered to a political party or to the sovereignist ideology".
Confusion continues to surround his loyalties. In his book, La manière nègre (The Black Way), he wrote, "So, a sovereign Quebec? An independent Quebec? Yes, and I applaud with both hands and I promise to be at all the St. Jean [Baptiste] parades." However, in October 2005, in an interview with Radio-Canada he said, "I never believed that I could become a separatist. I have a great deal of difficulty with nationalism in general." He also called members of the sovereignist movement who had called him a traitor, terrorists. At the same time he affirmed that he was a Québécois before a Canadian. He believes that he has always fought for the "cultural independence" of Quebec, but nothing further.[1]
Lafond's 2006 film "American Fugitive: The Truth About Hassan", a documentary about an American political activist who has admitted to assassinating an Iranian diplomat in 1980, who appeared, unexpectedly, in the 2001 film Kandahar, also stirred controversy. The National Post asserted that the film was too sympathetic to David Belfield, the activist.[2][3][4]
[edit] References
- ^ Jean's husband blasts separatists, Globe and Mail, October 27, 2005
- ^ American Fugitive:The Truth About Hassan, InformAction
- ^ Lafond's new film hits hot buttons, CBC, April 26, 2006
- ^ Airbrushing a killer, National Post, May 2, 2006
| Preceded by John Ralston Saul |
Viceregal Consort of Canada 2005–present |
Succeeded by incumbent |
