The chief executive of Air Canada has apologized for his inability to express himself in French after politicians called for his resignation for his English-only message of condolence after Sunday’s deadly crash in New York.
But lawmakers in Canada’s lone francophone province rejected the mea culpa as “too little too late” and overwhelmingly passed a motion calling for the head of Canada’s flagship carrier to step down.
Air Canada’s CEO, Michael Rousseau, has been criticized for the four-minute condolence video posted online that included only two French words – “bonjour” and “merci”.
“I am deeply saddened that my inability to speak French has diverted attention from the profound grief of the families and the great resilience of Air Canada’s employees, who have demonstrated outstanding professionalism despite the events of the past few days,” Rousseau said in a statement on Thursday.
“Despite many lessons over several years, unfortunately, I am still unable to express myself adequately in French. I sincerely apologize for this, but I am continuing my efforts to improve.”
But soon after, Quebec’s legislature passed a vote calling on Rousseau to resign. The motion, brought forward by the province’s minister of French language, cited the executive’s “lack of respect for the French language, Quebec families in mourning, and all francophones across the province”.
The motion also called for the next CEO of the company to speak French.
Lawmakers from all parties joined to vote in favour of the motion, with 92 for it and none against it. One person abstained.
The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, had previously said Rousseau showed a lack of compassion and judgment and said he looks forward to hearing more from Air Canada’s board of directors.
Antoine Forest, one of the two pilots killed in the crash at LaGuardia airport, was a French-speaking Quebecer. Forest and Mackenzie Gunther died when the Air Canada Jazz flight they were in landed at LaGuardia and collided with a fire truck on the runway.
Canada’s largest airline is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, where French is the primary language. Rousseau has been criticized for not speaking French previously. He delivered his condolence video message in English, with French subtitles.
Carney noted that Canada is a bilingual country with two official languages.
Quebec’s identity has been contentious since the 1760s when the British completed their takeover of what was then called New France. Quebec is about 80% French-speaking.
Legault noted that when Rousseau was appointed president of the airline in February 2021, he promised to learn French.
The office of the commissioner of official languages has received hundreds of complaints about Rousseau’s video.
“Back in November 2021, less than a year after he was appointed CEO of Air Canada, one of his first major speeches in his role triggered a strong controversy among francophones, as the speech was almost exclusively in English,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
“At the time, in response to that controversy, Rousseau apologized and pledged to learn French. He did later take French lessons but, as the new controversy suggests, it was probably not very successful to say the least.”
Jason Kenney, a former conservative cabinet minister, said he would rather the CEO of Canada’s flagship carrier focus his scarce time on safety and reliability than language training.
Associated Press contributed reporting
