Ottawa cancels Air Canada CEO’s appearance before Official Languages Committee

Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau announces his retirement in the wake of backlash he received after the fatal LaGuardia crash.

Outgoing Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau will no longer be questioned in Ottawa about his French skills.

The federal Standing Committee on Official Languages had summoned Rousseau, 68, to appear by May 1 after an uproar over his online condolence message to the families of the two Air Canada pilots killed in the LaGuardia Airport crash last month in New York, one of whom was a Quebecer.

The video message was delivered almost entirely in English, with only a “bonjour” and “merci” uttered in the nearly four-minute video. He later apologized, saying in a statement, “Despite many lessons over several years, unfortunately, I am still unable to express myself adequately in French.”

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The head of Canada’s largest airline has since announced he would retire by October.

Last week, members of the House committee agreed there was no need to grill him about his French skills since he’s stepping down.

They adopted a motion moved by the committee’s vice-chair, Conservative MP Joël Godin, to cancel his invitation days before his appearance.

New CEO to be summoned

The official languages committee did agree to invite the next CEO of Air Canada for an appearance within two months of his or her appointment “to allow the committee to assess the new leadership’s commitments regarding compliance with official languages obligations.”

The motion also called for the chair of the board of directors of Air Canada to be summoned to Ottawa for a one-hour hearing to explain the airline’s official languages priorities in their recruitment efforts for a new CEO, “as well as in the organization’s broader priorities.”

That hearing should be held by May 29.

Rousseau was widely criticized for his lack of French-language proficiency during his tenure as Air Canada’s CEO, a skill he had publicly committed to improving.

After the condolence video was posted, politicians in Quebec immediately called for his resignation, calling his attitude “disrespectful,” and later applauded his decision to retire.

The Commissioner of Official Languages also received dozens of complaints about the video.

Air Canada has not yet announced Rousseau’s replacement.