Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has said a decision by Air Canada’s top executive to post an English-only message of condolence after a deadly crash in New York showed a “lack of judgment, a lack of compassion”.
Amid growing calls for his resignation, the airline chief’s misstep has once again revived frustrations and fears over linguistic rights protections in the province of Quebec, where French is the only official language.
Two pilots were killed in the crash late on Sunday, when a fire truck collided with an Air Canada Express flight landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport.
The following day, the Air Canada CEO, Michael Rousseau, shared a four-minute condolence video online, saying he was deeply saddened by the loss of life and said the collision was a “very dark day” for Air Canada. It only included two French words – “bonjour” and “merci”.
Rousseau does not speak French – a language spoken by both his mother and wife, and roughly 80% of the population of Quebec. When he assumed the job in 2021, he pledged to learn the language, but months later prompted angry protests when he addressed the Montreal chamber of commerce in English.
On Wednesday, Air Canada, which is based in Montreal, said in a statement that Rousseau wanted to address “everyone affected by the tragedy, whether directly or indirectly”, himself.
“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.”
The video included French subtitles, and all available information was communicated in both official languages on the Air Canada website.
But the explanation did not satisfy federal ministers, who have summoned him to the official languages committee to “explain himself” to lawmakers.
“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 whatever the situation 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.”
Canada’s languages commissioner usually receives 100 complaints about the airline each year. But as of Wednesday morning, the commissioner said it received nearly 800 complaints about the video.
The two pilots killed in the collision were Antoine Forest from Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec, and Mackenzie Gunther, a 2023 alumnus of Toronto’s Seneca Polytechnic.
Mélanie Joly, the industry minister, joined the criticism, saying many of the victims and their families were francophones. “It is a question of moral leadership,” Joly said.
“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.
The federal Bloc Québécois leader, Yves-François Blanchet, said the Air Canada board should force him out. “He should leave. He should acknowledge the fact that he doesn’t have the requisite respect for Quebec society,” he said. “There is a limit to the number of insults that one is supposed to stand.”
In the 1950s, company bosses in the province would speak only English to their workers – and often refuse to allow French to be spoken. Those dynamics helped spark the Quiet Revolution – the bloodless overthrow of Catholicism and the anglophone ruling classes in the province – and a Quebecers separatist movement.
In recent years, Quebec’s nationalist government has passed laws to dramatically strengthen protections for the French language amid fears English is overtaking it, especially in large cities.
