I began requesting an interview with Liberia’s president more than a month before I left Canada. My emails were not acknowledged, but our fixer, Kaipee, told me it would all work out when I arrived.

“They will not give you audience with the president until you have a permit from the Liberian government,” he said.

It seemed I had no choice but to wait. 

As previously mentioned, we delivered a letter requesting an interview when we arrived. After two more visits, and several emails later, we were granted an appointment with Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at 5 p.m. on our last evening in the country.

I have not mentioned it until now, fearing the slightest step out of line on my part would cause it to be cancelled. The fact that it was so near the end of our time here made me nervous, since it left me no time to negotiate if something went wrong. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was designed that way intentionally.

There was no reason for concern. We went through several security checks as we made our way through the building but it was clear everyone was expecting us.

“You are the Canadian crew here to meet the president. You are on the itinerary.”

I’m told it is much easier for international journalists to secure one-one-one interviews with Her Excellency than it is for local journalists. Kaipee has been a journalist here for six years and has only sat down with her once.

We set up in the cabinet room and were given one hour. We were told we absolutely had to be out by 6 p.m. because there was a very important meeting in the same room. That would have been fine, except Madame President didn’t show up until 5:30. There was significant discussion with her team about how she would enter, where she would sit, and whether she would greet me when she arrived; she did not. I’m told this is a remnant of the Ebola crisis, when there was no touching.

It was a challenging shoot, but we were happy to have a few minutes with her. She answered our questions graciously, and wanted to know who else we had spoken with and whether we had a chance to leave the capital city. She seemed very pleased to hear we have been so warmly welcomed by the Liberian people.

I asked her why Canadians should care about Ebola and what it did to Liberians. She spoke slowly and deliberately:

“It knows no boundaries.”

There will be much more with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the months to come on CTV’s W5. Stay tuned!