Yellowknife (Jun 16/06) - Her Excellency, the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada, is still coming to terms with her lengthy title.

She prefers to think of it as a way of paying respect to the institution, rather than as some kind of ego boost.

Honourable Michaelle Jean Public events Premier Joe Handley will officially welcome the Governor General at a public ceremony Monday at 10 a.m. outside the Legislative Assembly. 12:15 p.m. Monday, tree planting and walkabout on the legislative grounds. 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, sod-turning ceremony at Yellowknife's new homeless shelter (former fire hall on Franklin Avenue, near Salvation Army). 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, she will attend the True North concert at NACC, and speak following intermission.

"I'm still Michaelle," she laughed.

Jean and her husband (His Excellency) Jean-Daniel Lafond will arrive in Yellowknife on Monday for a six-day visit to the NWT. Their seven-year-old daughter Marie-Eden, will not be coming; she's staying behind in Ottawa to finish up her last week at school, a decision her mother strongly supports.

"She's very serious about school and I'm happy to see that," she said. "Like my mother always told us, education is the key to freedom."

Jean was born in Haiti and emigrated to Canada as a child. She studied Italian and Spanish at the Universite de Montreal and received a masters' degree in comparative literature. While studying, she worked at Quebec shelters for battered women.

She is fluent in French, English, Italian, Spanish and Creole.

From 1988 until her appointment as governor general, she was a journalist with Radio-Canada.

By tradition, each governor general visits every province and territory during their first year in office. Jean travelled to Nunavut in April, and will visit the Yukon in the fall.

On her installation, Jean adopted the motto "Briser les solitudes" which loosely translates into breaking down barriers.

"My goal is to give a voice to people who are voiceless, people who are not heard from enough, people who are excluded," she said.

While in Yellowknife she will meet street youth at the Side Door Youth Centre, turn sod for Yellowknife's new homeless shelter, and meet with agencies helping female victims of violence.

She will travel to Fort Simpson to join National Aboriginal Day celebrations, and on Thursday she visits the Nahanni National Park Reserve.

"I'd like to get a sense of the challenges you face, the problems you're concerned about, and your success stories," she said. "And I'd like to share that with other Canadians."