Air Canada's CEO has been ordered to appear before a parliamentary committee to explain why he opted to speak almost exclusively in English in the condolence message he issued after Sunday night's deadly crash. In a nearly 4-minute video message released after an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck while landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport, killing two pilots, Michael Rousseau opened and closed with a brief "bonjour" and "merci," but otherwise spoke in English, with subtitles. French is an official language in Canada and the only official language in the province of Quebec, where the plane departed from; it is also the language spoken by one of the two pilots' families.
The backlash has been sharp enough that Parliament's language committee has ordered Rousseau to appear by May 1. Prime Minister Mark Carney called the move "very disappointing," stressing that "companies like Air Canada, particularly, have a responsibility to always communicate in both official languages regardless of the situation." Reuters reports Carney said he expects the airline's board to issue a statement on the matter. The CBC reports that as of Wednesday morning, the Commissioner of Official Languages had received 561 complaints about Rousseau's message.
A rep for the airline defended Rousseau, saying he "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 New York Times reports Rousseau has been chided in the past about his French language skills since taking the helm of Air Canada in 2021. His hiring spurred the deputy prime minister to request that Air Canada make his French competency part of his annual review, and the airline agreed.
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