Yeah, that’s not a great look in a dual-language country, especially when your headquarters is in Quebec.
The chief executive of Air Canada has apologized for his inability to express himself in French after politicians called for his resignation for his English-only message of condolence after Sunday’s deadly crash in New York.
But lawmakers in Canada’s lone Francophone province rejected the mea culpa as “too little too late” and overwhelmingly passed a motion calling for the head of Canada’s flagship carrier to step down.
Air Canada’s CEO, Michael Rousseau, has been criticized for the four-minute condolence video posted online that included only two French words – “bonjour” and “merci”.
“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,” Rousseau said in a statement on Thursday.
“Despite many lessons over several years, unfortunately, I am still unable to express myself adequately in French. I sincerely apologize for this, but I am continuing my efforts to improve.”
But soon after, Quebec’s legislature passed a vote calling on Rousseau to resign. The motion, brought forward by the province’s minister of French language, cited the executive’s “lack of respect for the French language, Quebec families in mourning, and all Francophones across the province”.
I learned your fucking language, the least you can do is learn ours. In fact, more than 45% of the population in Quebec speaks English, while about 10% of English speaking Canadians can speak French.
Bilingualism for French speakers, and unilingualism for English speakers. It’s so insulting every time this happens. And every time they’re like “ooh sorry, I tried but French is haaard”.
One of the pilots, and the crew member that was ejected, are both French speakers. And their company can’t even offer a few words of sympathy in French?! They both learned English you lazy CEO.
I’m usually not very militant about those things, but this happens frequently and it’s so disappointing.
Quand je veux un travail qui demande de parler les deux langues, je dois parler les deux et pas seulement promette que je vais un jour dire quelques mots d’anglais éventuellement après plusieurs années d’“études”. Je dois le prouver sur le champ. Pourquoi les dirigeants à gros salaires ont des passe-droits?!
C’est tellement décevant.
I totally get where you’re coming from, but once you switched into French, I realised how rusty mine is. I can barely follow German or Dutch at this point.
After throwing it through Google Translate, that’s a very reasonable argument. Being bilingual should have been a requirement before assuming the position (euphemism intended).
But if this guy went out there and spoke shitty French, the Quebec rabble rousers would have been equally, if not even more, furious. The guy was expecting them to have some understanding in the face of tragedy, but that’s a bridge too far. Quebec had to make it about themselves.
I fail to see how someone essentially apologizing in the wrong language is the fault of the Quebecois.
The Quebecois response to his language is. Remember, English IS an official language of Canada. It was a choice to set aside the tragedy and make it about Quebec politics.
No, it was about one of the dead pilots being a French speaker and a tone-deaf response. I’ve lived in Canada, and this knee-jerk “Quebec is at it again” reaction to equal treatment feels unjustified. “Let them speak French,” essentially, while the rest of us don’t. The flight originated in Montreal, which already tells you English is the wrong language to apologise in.
