Air Canada CEO apologizes for inability to express self ‘adequately in French’

The head of Air Canada apologized on Thursday after he delivered an English-only video response to Sunday’s deadly collision between one of the airline’s planes and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

“Despite many lessons over several years, unfortunately, I am still unable to express myself adequately in French,” Michael Rousseau said in a written statement in English.

“I sincerely apologize for this, but I am continuing my efforts to improve.”

The crash hospitalized dozens of passengers and left the flight’s two pilots, one of whom was a French-speaking Quebecer, dead. The Air Canada Jazz flight to New York originated in Montreal.

• Passenger recounts rescue efforts in LaGuardia airport crash

Rousseau was swiftly criticized by politicians across the country, particularly in Quebec, for not also offering condolences in French in the video message released on Monday, as Air Canada officially operates in both languages.

Quebec Premier François Legault called for his resignation, while Prime Minister Mark Carney said the response showed “a lack of compassion.” On Thursday, the Quebec legislature passed a resolution demanding that Rousseau resign, Bloomberg reported.

The motion in the province’s National Assembly called on Rousseau to step down due to a “lack of respect for the French language, Quebec families in mourning and all francophones across the province,” according to the news service. The vote carried 92-0 with one abstention.

Rousseau was also summoned to testify in Ottawa before the Official Languages Committee for what it said was a failure to respect Canada’s bilingualism.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the federal Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages said it received 795 complaints regarding Rousseau’s video message.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on Thursday that both politicians and corporate leaders should strive to be able to communicate in both of Canada’s official languages.

“Canada is a bilingual country,” she told the AFP news service during a meeting of Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers in France, repeating the same phrase in French: “Le Canada est un pays bilingue.”

“And we continue to advocate for the leaders of our country to be able to speak both official languages, including in the corporate sector.”

‘Deeply saddened’

In his statement on Thursday, Rousseau reiterated his condolences to the families of the Air Canada pilots who died Sunday. They have been identified as Antoine Forest of Coteau-du-Lac, Que., near Montreal, and Mackenzie Gunther, a 2023 alumnus of Toronto’s Seneca Polytechnic.

• Hometown mourns Quebec pilot Antoine Forest

“As President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada, it is my duty to support those affected by this tragedy,” Rousseau wrote.

“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.”

Frustration over Rousseau’s inability to communicate in French goes back to 2021, when he was promoted to Air Canada’s top job after serving as the airline’s chief financial officer since 2007.

Despite having lived in Montreal, where Air Canada is headquartered, for more than a decade at the time of his promotion, Rousseau didn’t speak French but said later that he intended to learn.

At a 2022 appearance before the Official Languages Committee after a controversial English-only speech at a business event in Montreal the previous year, Rousseau said he was studying French for 10 hours a week, but it wasn’t good enough to use in public yet.

Rousseau was born in Cornwall, Ont., about half an hour from the Quebec border, and his surname is common throughout Quebec. His wife and mother are reportedly both proficient in French.

Quebec’s government House leader and minister of justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, said during a press scrum on Wednesday that Rousseau’s video message was “contemptuous” and called him a “repeat offender” when it came to respecting Canada’s bilingual tradition.

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Air Canada began as a Crown corporation, and although the company was privatized in the late 1980s, it remains subject to the Official Languages Act.

With files from The Canadian Press, AFP and Bloomberg