Air Canada is required to communicate in both English and French, but the CEO only spoke English in a message of condolence after the fatal crash earlier this week.
After two Air Canada pilots were killed and passengers and flight attendants seriously injured when their aircraft hit a fire truck on a runway while landing at New York LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night, Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau did what any airline CEO does after their airline is affected by a tragedy: he made a statement of condolences to the victims and their families.
The statement was subtitled in English and French, but social media users immediately noted that Rousseau’s spoken remarks included only two words in French: the opening “Hello, bonjour,” and closing with “thank you, merci.” This drew the ire of some, considering the flight had originated in Montreal, Québec, a province where some 85% of the population speaks French as their first language.
Air Canada explained in a statement that Rousseau wanted to respond to the tragedy quickly and directly, saying that “he therefore recorded a message as a matter of priority before departing on a flight for the crash site. Despite his efforts, his ability to express himself in French does not allow him to convey such a sensitive message in that language as he would wish.”
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In spite of that explanation, the video has drawn the attention of the Canadian government. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the leader of the Québec political party Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, both complained publicly.
“We proudly live in a bilingual country. There are two official languages here, and Air Canada has a special responsibility, whatever the situation, to communicate in both official languages,” Carney said. “I am extremely disappointed by the message released by the CEO of Air Canada. It shows a lack of compassion, and we will be closely following his comments before the official languages committee as well as the comments coming from the board of Air Canada.”
Blanchet posted in French on social media, “In light of this sad and gross lack of respect towards the relatives and family of the pilot from Coteau-du-Lac, Antoine Forest, a French-speaking Quebecer, the head of Air Canada must seriously consider whether he has clearly disqualified himself from the position he holds.”
By Tuesday, Parliament’s Official Languages Committee had asked for Rousseau to appear before them in Ottawa before May 1. The committee had received nearly 800 complaints about the video in the few days following its release. The committee typically receives around a hundred complaints about Air Canada’s language accommodations over the course of a year.
Canada’s Official Languages Act guarantees the right of Canadians to receive government services in either English or French. The law was passed in the 1960s when Air Canada was a government-owned airline. After it was privatized in the 1980s, it remained subject to that law, although no other airline in Canada is held to the same standard. The terms of Air Canada’s privatization also required that the airline locate its headquarters in Montreal.
Rousseau has been CEO of Air Canada since 2021. Just months into his tenure, he was called before the Official Languages Committee after a 26-minute speech to Montreal’s chamber of commerce contained only 20 seconds of French, generating a record 2,680 complaints to the committee.
In that hearing, he told committee members he studied French each morning with tutors. The committee ultimately ruled the complaints were justified, and recommended that moving forward, executive communications from Air Canada be made in “both official languages with equal quality”—meaning that a speech spoken in English but subtitled in French would not meet that standard.
“If he still doesn’t speak French today, it’s disrespectful to his employees and to his francophone customers, so yes, I think that if he doesn’t speak French, he should resign,” François Legault, the Quebec premier, told reporters.
French is one of Canada’s two official languages at the federal level; nationwide, about 22% of Canadians speak French as a first language. Québec and New Brunswick also recognize French as an official language at the provincial level. Québec is the only province with a francophone majority; New Brunswick has nearly a third of its residents as francophone.
Many of the survivors of Air Canada Express Flight 8646 are French-speakers.
