Conveying the vision of their new foundation, the Michaëlle Jean Foundation, Michaëlle Jean and her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, discuss the ways in which the arts can be used to foster social harmony, civic engagement, inclusion and innovation.

Over the course of her mandate as 27th Governor General of Canada, Madame Jean and her husband, the filmmaker and philosopher Jean-Daniel Lafond, made youth one of their main priorities. Through their travels and work across Canada, they saw firsthand the power of the arts to change lives and empower youth to build better communities. Convinced of the need to maintain their commitment beyond the mandate, they created the Michaëlle Jean Foundation whose primary objective is to enable youth, particularly in underprivileged rural, urban, Aboriginal and northern communities, to use the power of the arts to become catalysts for change and actively engaged in society.