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Rideau Hall, Friday, May 2, 2008 Jean-Daniel and I are delighted to welcome you here to Rideau Hall and to have you join us around this large table, which is an invitation to discussion and to celebration. Today, we are holding the 24th edition of Art Matters, this time in conjunction with the Gover...

Art Matters Forum held in Conjunction with theGovernor General’s Performing Arts Awards Rideau Hall, Friday, May 2, 2008 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY For creators in all artistic disciplines, the body is more than a medium or a vessel. As the seat of our existence, of our sensate experience, the human bod...

May 2, 2008 We often say that we have rights, but we have responsibilities as well. Take, for example, the right to know so that we may better understand and learn. With this right comes the responsibility to remember, to look to the past and to hold on to the stories of those who have lived it. Som...

Rideau Hall, Friday, May 2, 2008 Tonight, we are celebrating the performing arts, and to me, the stage is a meeting place. A meeting place for people who communicate in a way that extends beyond that moment on stage. Who among us, while watching a performance, a concert, a film, has not felt themsel...

Ottawa, Saturday, May 3, 2008 Here we are, together again to celebrate the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala. Thank you so much for being here tonight as supporters of Canadian art. From up here, one can see that the stage is a meeting place. It is a place for looking, for listening and...

Paris, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 Parliamentarians and friends of Canada, my husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, and I would like to thank you for such a warm welcome. Mr. Speaker, I am deeply moved by your words and would like you to know how delighted we are to be in France, a country that is dear to our hea...

May 6, 2008 It was with great sorrow that my husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, and I learned of the death of Corporal Michael Starker, of 15 Field Ambulance, in Afghanistan. During a patrol with Afghan National Security Forces in the Pashmul region, Cpl Starker’s cooperation team had to respond to enemy ...

Paris, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 Thank you, Excellency, for this warm welcome. We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. And here we are. It is a great joy for me, my husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, and our daughter, Marie-Éden, who is celebrating her ninth birthday today, to be here with you....

Reviers, Thursday, May 8, 2008 I am so proud to be standing here with you, Excellency, in this place so steeped in history for our two peoples, on this solemn May 8th, so soon after the moving commemoration at Ouistreham. Take a look at the tombstones that surround us. Beneath each one, there is a u...

La Rochelle, Thursday, May 8, 2008 Here we are, in this magnificent place steeped in history, in this year marking the 400th anniversary of the founding of the City of Québec, on the shores of the ocean where explorers like Samuel de Champlain mapped out the first maritime routes that link us today....

Bordeaux, Saturday, May 10, 2008 Thank you so much for coming out in such great numbers to add your voice to those seeking to promote intercultural dialogue, particularly on this day, which France has chosen to honour the memory of the millions of Africans deported and reduced to slavery. Later, I w...

Bordeaux, Saturday, May 10, 2008 As the great-great-granddaughter of slaves, I have come here, at the invitation of the Mayor of Bordeaux, to this former slave port, to pay tribute to the memory of the millions of Africans deported to the Americas where, with complete disregard for humanity, they we...

Rideau Hall, Friday, May 16, 2008 The story of the Canadian Victoria Cross, which we are unveiling today, is a beautiful story. It is a story that began with the desire of an entire nation to recognize military valour at its noblest and most respected. In 2005, thousands of people made their way to ...

Rideau Hall, Thursday, May 22, 2008 We have come here today to honour 60 members of Canada’s police services who are about to join the ranks of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces. I am delighted to see so many of you here, but this occasion also brings back memories for me that I would like to ...

Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Saturday, May 24, 2008 Today is a wonderful day. A day that puts me in mind of another day: November 13, 1952. On that day, 56 years ago, my predecessor, Governor General Vincent Massey, opened the Royal Military College Saint-Jean, just as we are doing this morning. On tha...

Rideau Hall, Monday, May 26, 2008 Excellency, Mrs. Yushchenko, my husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and I wish you a very warm welcome to Canada and are delighted to have you here, at Rideau Hall. We hope that during your stay, you will feel a bit at home. Not simply because of the strong ties between our ...

Rideau Hall, Monday, May 26, 2008 Excellency, Mrs. Yushchenko, my husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and I are so delighted to welcome you here to Rideau Hall where, beginning in the reception room, a Ukrainian vision of Canada awaits. As soon as I was installed as governor general of Canada, I wanted the w...

Rideau Hall, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 You are about to set out for the far corners of the Earth to represent our country abroad, and I am so pleased to be able to share this occasion with you, as you begin this next step in your career. For me, you are truly agents for bringing peoples together and con...

The Citadelle, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 What a pleasure it is to welcome you to the Residence of the Governor General at the Citadelle, as we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the City of Québec. You know, it takes time for a house to have a soul. It is as though time itself leaves beh...

The Citadelle, Thursday, May 29, 2008 I think you will agree: one need only look out from high atop the western bank of the Cap-aux-Diamants promontory to understand why Frontenac chose to build a redoubt on this site. The role that this military structure played in the city’s defence strategy is ob...