Officials on Wednesday inspect the wreckage of an Air Canada Express jet at LaGuardia Airport in New York, where it had collided with a Port Authority fire truck Sunday night.Yuki Iwamura/The Associated Press
Political leaders expressed dismay with Air Canada’s chief executive officer, and in some cases called for his ouster, after his English-language video message of sympathy to those affected by a Sunday plane crash that killed two pilots revived questions about his ability and willingness to speak French.
Among Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau’s critics on Wednesday was Prime Minister Mark Carney, who said he expected a response from the airline’s board. The outrage was fiercest among politicians in Quebec, where the French skills of the head of Canada’s flag carrier have long been a sore point.
Antoine Forest, the pilot in command of the Air Canada Express flight when it collided with a fire truck on the runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport during landing, was a francophone from Coteau-du-Lac, Que. His co-pilot was Mackenzie Gunther from Ontario. The jet departed from Montreal.
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On his way into the House of Commons Wednesday, Mr. Carney said that Canada is a bilingual country and that Air Canada has a responsibility to communicate in both official languages, regardless of the situation.
“I’m so disappointed by the video message by Air Canada’s CEO,” Mr. Carney said. “It lacks judgment and compassion.”
Parliament’s official languages committee decided late Tuesday to summon Mr. Rousseau to allow him to explain himself. The summons asked him to appear before May 1.
In the four-minute video uploaded to the airline’s website Monday, Mr. Rousseau offered information on the accident and expressed his “deepest sorrow for everyone affected.” In French, he said only two words: “Bonjour” at the start and “merci” at the end.
Mr. Carney said he would follow Mr. Rousseau’s appearance at the committee closely “as well as comments which I expect in due course” from the airline’s board of directors.
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“This is a major crisis now” for Air Canada, said François Dauphin, president of the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations. It will take a significant communications effort to repair the situation, he said.
The storm enveloping Canada’s largest carrier highlights how quickly the winds can change for business leaders in the country, and particularly in Quebec, where language has always been a prickly subject and occasionally spills over into the corporate world.
Air Canada is headquartered in Montreal. Although it is subject to Canada’s Official Languages Act and other laws, Ottawa’s management oversight of the airline is limited. It has no power to dictate who should run the company or sit on its board, but it has in the past made suggestions about its governance.
Jacques Roy, a professor emeritus of logistics and operations management at HEC Montreal, said the matter puts a squeeze on Air Canada’s board of directors to consider replacing Mr. Rousseau. “If you’re going to be a CEO of an officially bilingual company in Canada with a history like Air Canada, obviously you should learn to say a few words in French and use these occasions to show that you’ve made some progress,” he said.
A visitor at a memorial for Air Canada Jazz pilot Antoine Forest in Montreal on Wednesday. Mr. Forest, one of the pilots killed in the crash, was a francophone from Coteau-du-lac, Que.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Mr. Rousseau’s video showed “a lack of empathy and a lack of sensitivity,” given that some of the victims and their families are French-speaking.
“I think it’s a question of moral leadership,” she said, adding the CEO now needs to show he understands the message.
Others called for a change at the top of Air Canada. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Mr. Rousseau should quit, adding that Mr. Carney should put pressure on Air Canada’s board to get him to leave. “There is a limit” to the number of insults francophone Quebeckers should have to endure, he said.
In Quebec City, Premier François Legault also said Mr. Rousseau should step down, pointing out that he pledged to learn French years ago.
“If he will not speak French today, it’s a lack of respect towards his employees and towards his clients,” Mr. Legault said. “I think if he does not speak French, he should resign.”
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Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said Air Canada should force Mr. Rousseau to step down, calling him a “repeat offender” for failing to respect Quebec’s official language. “This is contemptuous,” he told reporters.
Air Canada spokesman Christophe Hennebelle said Mr. Rousseau is not resigning.
“It’s important that he’s at the helm” at this time, he said by phone. Air Canada is going through one of the worst events that can hit an airline, namely a crash that cost the lives of two pilots, on top of the financial strain of soaring fuel prices, he said.
Mr. Hennebelle said he could not say whether the board planned to hold a meeting over the language controversy because such meetings are kept confidential. The Globe and Mail contacted several company directors for this story but received no replies.
Mr. Rousseau recorded the video on Monday before departing for the crash site in New York, Mr. Hennebelle explained. “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,” Mr. Hennebelle said. “We have therefore used subtitles to ensure that everyone can receive his message directly.”
He said all information about the crash has been provided in both official languages on the internet, social media and news releases. “His primary aim was to speak in person,” Mr. Hennebelle said.
Mr. Rousseau’s French skills have come under scrutiny before.
Air Canada CEO pledges to learn French amid backlash in Quebec over language comments
Not long after he became CEO in 2021, Mr. Rousseau made a speech to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal that was mostly in English. Questioned by reporters after the speech, the CEO said he had managed to live in Montreal for 14 years without speaking French, and suggested he was too busy to learn the language.
His comments shocked politicians in Quebec City and Ottawa, and triggered more than 2,500 complaints to the office of Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages. Justin Trudeau, who was prime minister at the time, called the situation “unacceptable.”
Mr. Rousseau later apologized for the remarks and said he was beginning to take French lessons. “The fact that this iconic company is headquartered in Montreal is a source of pride for me and our entire executive team,” he said at the time. “I reiterate Air Canada’s commitment to show respect for French and, as a leader, I will set the tone.”
In the midst of the Rousseau uproar in 2021, then-deputy-prime-minister Chrystia Freeland said learning to speak French should become part of the CEO’s performance review. She wrote a letter to Air Canada’s chairman Vagn Soerensen urging the airline to make the ability to communicate in French one of the qualifications of anyone holding a senior position at the company.
The chairman responded that Mr. Rousseau was committed to learning French and that it would be “an integral part” of his performance evaluation. However, the company has provided scant details on that evaluation in its public filings, Mr. Dauphin said.
Mr. Rousseau has “continued to act on his personal pledge to learn French,” according to the company’s 2025 management proxy circular.
Mr. Rousseau was born in Cornwall, Ont., and trained to become an accountant at Toronto’s York University. He joined Air Canada in 2007 after leaving retailer Hudson’s Bay Co. Despite boasting a common Quebec surname and having a wife and mother who speak French, he is not proficient.
As experts assess the aftermath of the Air Canada Express plane crash at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday, some say they're surprised it wasn't worse, despite the tragedy of a disaster that left two pilots dead. Industry insiders say commercial planes are built for flight, not head-on collisions with fire trucks that can weigh between 25 and 50 tonnes.
The Canadian Press
In comments before a parliamentary committee in December, 2024, Mr. Rousseau said he continued to take French courses but that at his age, learning the language was “difficult.”
Conservative MP Joël Godin said that more than a year later, it’s clear now that little has changed in the way the CEO views his language responsibilities. “It’s a question of principle, of values, and of intention,” Mr. Godin said, adding the CEO has once again shown his “lack of sensitivity.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the federal language watchdog’s office had received nearly 800 complaints about Mr. Rousseau’s statement.
Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is using the outrage to argue in favour of Quebec’s sovereignty.
“Let those who are fed up with federal institutions disregarding the French language ... join the movement for Quebec independence, because Canada has been treating the French language this way for decades, and it’s not going to change,” he said.
With reports from Maura Forrest, Marie Woolf, Stephanie Levitz and The Canadian Press