Air Canada CEO draws scorn for delivering condolences over LaGuardia airport crash only in English

OTTAWA - After an Air Canada jet collided with a truck while landing at LaGuardia Airport, the airline’s chief executive, Mr Michael Rousseau, recorded a speech to address the disaster and comfort victims and their families.

Few took issue with his sentiment, but some in Canada objected to how he conveyed it: in English.

Critics noted that in the video posted to social media, Mr Rousseau spoke almost no French, an official language in Canada and the one spoken by the family of one of the two pilots who died.

He opened with “Hello, bonjour,” and closed with “Thank you, merci,” but otherwise spoke English, with subtitles displayed in both languages.

His speech reignited a debate over linguistic inclusivity, a contentious issue in Canada.

Particular scrutiny falls on Air Canada, which still bears special obligations from its origins as a state-owned carrier before it was privatised.

Mr Rousseau has faced criticism throughout his tenure for speaking little French.

A spokesperson for the airline defended Mr Rousseau, saying that he lacked the language skills to address a sensitive topic in French and had wanted to send a personal message soon after the collision on the night of March 22.

Still, criticism of his remarks, expressed on social media and in complaints to Canada’s bilingualism commission, prompted a parliamentary committee overseeing language laws to summon Mr Rousseau to explain himself.

The committee voted unanimously on March 24 to order Mr Rousseau to appear before it by May 1.

“When I saw the video and that it was only in English, I couldn’t believe it,” Mr Mario Beaulieu, a Quebec nationalist lawmaker on the committee, said during the meeting on March 24.

“It made no sense. It’s practically provocation.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed his disappointment with Mr Rousseau.

“We proudly live in a bilingual country,” Mr Carney told reporters on March 25, “and companies like Air Canada, particularly, have a responsibility to always communicate in both official languages regardless of the situation. I’m very disappointed”.

Canadian law requires government services to be in both English and French, but support for bilingualism is not uniform.

About 22 per cent of Canada’s population speaks French, according to government data.

Bilingualism is a particularly sensitive topic in Quebec, the province where French is the sole official language and is spoken by more than 84 per cent of people.

Anxiety about the rising influence of English there fuelled efforts to preserve its French cultural identity and spawned a separatist political party in the 1970s.

The Air Canada jet took off from Montreal Trudeau International Airport in Quebec before it crashed into the fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York.

One of the plane’s pilots, Mr Antoine Forest, was from Quebec.

In an e-mailed statement, Mr Christophe Hennebelle, a spokesperson for Air Canada, said that Mr Rousseau’s “primary aim was to speak in person” in the wake of the crash.

“He therefore recorded a message as a matter of priority before departing on a flight for the crash site,” the statement said.

“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. We have therefore used subtitles to ensure that everyone can receive his message directly.”

Mr Hennebelle wrote that the information in the video had already been shared in other ways in both languages.

He added that communicating in both English and French “is a priority for Air Canada every day, and we remain committed to this”.

Some people on social media defended Mr Rousseau, saying that the aftermath of a fatal disaster was not the time to bring up language disputes.

Mr Rousseau, who has led Air Canada since 2021, has been criticised before for not speaking or understanding French fluently.

Canada’s deputy prime minister at the time of his hiring as chief executive wrote to the airline’s chair, saying that knowledge of French should be part of Mr Rousseau’s annual performance review. The airline said it would comply.

Air Canada, unlike other Canadian carriers, is subject to bilingualism laws because it was established as a state-owned enterprise before it was privatised in the 1980s.

The legislation requires it to serve customers in both languages.

The airline is headquartered in Montreal, which is primarily French-speaking.

The same committee summoning Mr Rousseau over the crash video also summoned him in 2022 over another set of comments in English.

He apologised then for his limited French and said that he was taking language lessons.

“I admit I made a mistake by not learning to speak French when I joined Air Canada,” Mr Rousseau told the committee that year.

“I’m obviously correcting that mistake at this point in time. And I look forward to being able to communicate much better in French with an appropriate accent over the next little while.”

In 2023, the committee rejected a proposal to add French proficiency as a job requirement for the CEOs of companies like Air Canada that are subjected to Canada’s Official Languages Act.

Members of the committee on March 24 said that Mr Rousseau failed to show empathy to French speakers.

“We’ve already had him as a witness here in this committee, and he committed to learning French – and I’m not judging him and it’s hard to learn a second language,” said Mr Joël Godin, a lawmaker in Canada’s Conservative Party.

“But he could have read from a teleprompter. He could have shown his sensitivity to this issue and his will and intention to respect the French language and Francophones.” NYTIMES