On Sunday night, we saw a tragic accident at LaGuardia (LGA), whereby an Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 and a fire truck collided on the runway, leading to the death of the two pilots, plus several injuries.
Continue reading: Following Accident, Air Canada’s CEO IS Under Fire For His Lack Of French… Again
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
What a travesty! Disrespectful Mikey Russell must not realize Canada is a "bi-lingual" country? I wouldn't be surprised if the house of representatives starts moving to replace him as CEO. After 5 years of lessons in a language how have you not been able to "master" it? Fishy!!!! Called "not trying"?
As a Canadian....this is just another eye roll moment in terms of the ongoing battle between english and french Canada.
I am from Ottawa and fully bilingual...but its annoying to see this as a political issue at the moment.
As much as I think Rousseau is a terrible CEO for non-language issues; we need more attention to the emergency at hand....i think this is an issue for say...a month from now.
The Canadian government needs to put their effort to push ATC changes in the USA. This distraction doesnt provide much credibility in that effort.
AC needs to be sensitive to customers and be there for all of Canada. But i dont think this is a political issue...but this is Canada....this is the national past-time of the ongoing tussle between Quebec/French and English Canada.
“I’ve been able to live in Montreal without speaking French, and I think that’s a testament to the city of Montreal.”
Certainly not a testament to your empathy, your open-mindness, nor your learning skills
This is a nothing-burger. No one is seriously upset with Air Canada or its CEO. The pilots are heroes. RIP.
This particular crowd of Canadian citizens is never satisfied. They've been this way for decades.
A plane crashed. People are dead. But they're vocally angry that an executive doesn't speak sufficient French in his sympathy video.
Oh, to live in a world where THIS keeps you up at night.
Also, notice that the Official Languages Committee - an actual standing committee of the Canadian House of Commons - has summoned him to give sworn testimony about his lack of French.
The government has not summoned him to talk about safety, or training, or accident response. They don't care about that. They just want to know why his French is so limited.
So does this mean the CEOs that have been/were running foreign airlines in Asia, Africa, Europe and Middle East need to be fluent in the languages of where their airlines are located? Absolutely not.
You’re hired to a do a job, not be a polyglot.
If he’s not competent at his job, that’s one thing. But if he’s not fluent in Québécois French, go find something more important to criticize (and yes, I didn’t call it “French” because it’s not French from France - it’s Quebec’s language, and not a dialect).
The language police and other critics of this issue really need to do something more productive with their time.
Signed,
an Anglophone who lived in Montréal once and still remains turned off and annoyed by Law 101 up there - and continues to watch the province destroy itself and its economy with this nonsense.
(yes, I actually speak some French and Québécois French but apparently it’s not good enough for anyone up there)
The French Canadians may not like to admit it, but English is the principal language of business all over the world. It also happens to be the majority language of Canada, a bilingual country. And hundreds of thousands of people live very full and rewarding lives in Montreal with little or no ability to speak French. It may not be politically correct to say it, but that’s the truth. Senior airline executives have more pressing demands on their time than learning another language.
Team No One here. Air Canada knew its CEO had language issues, given past spats, and should have been able to avoid this PR gaffe. That said, the Quebecois obsession with language drove most of Canada’s big companies out of Quebec in the 1970s, other than state/provincial owned ones. The provincial government props up the economy, but it’s not sustainable.
This is obviously something Canadians care very much about and very little of the rest of the world cares about. Canadians please explain bc many other countries have multiple official languages but the corporations in those companies choose just a single language when making public statements
I honestly think he should have done better with his French. He could have at least gotten someone to write a script in French and practised it before recording the video. I'm from a non francophone African country and have lived in Montreal for 5 years and can hold conversations in French. This guy has been here for more than a decade. I stand with the French Canadians in this. People should make effort to integrate
Nasr is interesting as he was very visible during the new aeroplan rollout, genuinely engaged with the FF community and seemed super sharp. Unfortunately, his performance during the labour disruption was a bit of a disaster. The "We've got to get the planes back in the sky" CP24 video is worth checking out. Ben Smith is interesting as he's done a great job with labour at AF, which people thought was mission impossible.
Could it be because it’s one of the official languages of the country, millions of people speak it within the country and it’s part of the historical fabric of the country? Just spitballing.
La seule chose qui compte, c'est d'accumuler beaucoup de points de fidélité. Il est également important d'utiliser ces points.
French-English language conflict in Canada is as old and often as black-white gender issue in the States. They almost seceded from Canada in late 1995 with the vote count of 49.6% approval rate. Fortunately, they were not as imbecile as the British approving Brexit referendum. Yet, they consistently receive the most government coffer while contributing much less compare to western provinces. They also enjoy more opportunities to gain federal government employment, via various co-ops programs in universities. Heck, Moroccans speak French like French native speakers. Many French native speakers say that they do not understand French Quebecois that they speak English with each other. One guy explained that French Quebecois speak " thirteen century French farmers' language". Learning French is much more challenging than learning English because it involves masculin/ feminine and other weird circumflex accents. Five years of intense learning French (not immersion) will not pass proficient standard, but may earn you "passable" knowledge.
Some of France’s largest companies, including l’Oreal and BNP Paribas, use English as their principal company language. The only people who fuss regularly about using French are the Quebecois and French diplomats at the UN.
Enlighten me why abortion is such a hot button issue that continues to rile up people of all stripes when other more pressing issues are swept under the rug. Canadians do not care about this issue only the French Quebecois. Those who do tend to feel aggrieved by the injustice of some sort like a small section in this country.
Air Canadas CEO has nothing to apologize for. The ones who should be are those two stupid pilots that literally ignored what was said by ATC and slammed into a fire truck that was sitting in the middle of the runway.
There are reasons why something unimportant to you is important to others.
Foreigners (non-Canadians) bewildered by Canadian bilingualism is like non-Americans bewildered by US gun issues. Quickly forming opinions, internet-style, isn't a good look.
There's a history.
Far too many people around the world think that they can speak English …. however, here on the right side of the pond, we know better …. 🙂
I could understand the angst if Air Canada was government owned, but it was privatized long ago.
I would normally be in the "this is ridiculous" camp but I do think that the lack of a French version of the video is more appalling than normal Canadian Bi-Lingual controversies given (a) the lead pilot was from Quebec and (b) the flight took off from Montreal, so I would expect a good amount of the passangers are based in Quebec.
Now, I'm sure there would've been some hand-wringing around this even if the flight was from Calgary, but its I think fairly in this case amplified by those factors.
About 70pct of Canada's population don't speak French .. or let us say Québécois. It is clearly as big faux pas, given the controversy it was likely to cause However they should focus on the bigger picture as the vast majority speak English. C'est tiguidou.
The aircraft was landing, wheels down, you utter idiot. The firetruck crossed an active runway.
And Dinky Liddle Tom Deuce Dunn? Does Delta CEO speak FRENCH? THINKING NOT HMMMM? Guess you can't be "Totally Enraged" by this ( that as I have on good, no VERY GOOD, authoritie) you claim to be ! And actually Only English - even worse as the USA is bilingual country - where is his Spanish?? Looks like Moe Kirby and Team United win yet again!
It's very regional and mostly Quebec . It is barely spoken in other provinces.
on the CEOs competence …I don’t see how one can know whether he’s adding value or not based on his media profile. Ultimately he is the CEO and should be judged on the company’s performance and not his public visibility. That is how the market and shareholders judge. Perhaps as a leader his style is to let his exec team be more visible - that’s a legitimate strategy and it can be effective for some leaders.
The reason the language has become politicized this week is that there is soon to be an election in a Quebec constituency. In my view it’s sad that they would would do this at this time.
This is by far the worst take I've read on any crash ever. The aircraft was landing and already on the ground. They don't go from 100 to 0 on a dime.
And you can say Americans don’t speak real English what a stupid comment from a stupid person
LOL, yes, this. The safety video even acknowledges this. Concentrate on what is needed for safety, not that you are flying over some indigenous lands.
During the 3 day strike that shut down Air Canada last year, this same CEO did a tv interview (in English) where he admitted that the airline had no operational back-up plan because they expected the government would order the striking workers back to work immediately.
He’s dumber than a bag of bricks and clearly a liability to the airline. No one cares what finally gets him fired, just get him fired.
Icarus- The fire truck was cleared to cross the runway. The young stupid pilots were not listening to ATC and chose to land. Even after they landed they could have pulled to the left, but instead rammed straight into the fire truck.
Because Air Canada is legally required to comply with the Official Languages Act (OLA) under the Air Canada Public Participation Act.
The Air Canada Public Participation Act (ACPPA) is a 1988 Canadian law that privatized Air Canada (formerly a Crown corporation) by selling its shares to the public. It mandates that the private company maintains its headquarters in Montreal and operational/maintenance centres in Mississauga, Winnipeg, and Montreal, while adhering to the Official Languages Act.
Americans can't relate to this but plenty of other countries have similar issues. Look at Belgium with French vs Flemish or in Switzerland. The guy has lived in MTL for 14 years and can't pre-record 2 sentences in French to express condolences for a French pilot...they knew there was going to be blowback about this. That said, these questions are always blown out of proportion in Quebec. Much bigger fish to fry.
Yes. And in Quebec, they do things like make laws your business can't have an English name. So, businesses had to remove a " 's " from its name and you eat at PFK (Poulet Frit Kentucky) (OK, I wouldn't). I love Montreal, but I only got treated nicely when I learned I had to make sure they knew I was American. I went from a p.o.s. Canadien with lousy French skills to an American who actually tries to speak French.
The is just egotistical Canadian who has to overcompensate by bullying Canadian who only speaks English because people from France piss on them for not speaking 'real' French.
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Canada is a bilingual country with the exception of the province of Quebec. They only need to speak French there. That inequality bothers a lot of people. According to Canadian laws, the video should have also been in French. But I don't understand why the Quebecois are exempt from having to learn English. Many do, of course. But why can't the province be bilingual like all the others?
With the pilots both Quebecois and this statement being delivered in English with subtitles is just horrible optics. Even if he doesn't learn to speak French unaided, he could at least learn enough to read a prepared statement in French. There have been American and Brazilian actors who appeared on Spanish language telenovelas who learned enough to speak their roles. Monsieur Rousseau could learn the same.
Although it was a few years ago, I lived in Canada for several years. A beautiful country with very warm and friendly people.
My experience, Quebec expects the other provinces to be bilingual, providing signage, legal documents, etc, in both languages. An Ontario driver's licence will be in both English and French. If you travel to Quebec or view a Quebec driver's licence, French only.
There was a phrase they used for everything including french ..... Ottawa compliant.
Respect others as you demand to be respected.
Not to mention their French isn't exactly standard French so isn't that useful to know.
As a former Crown Corporation the requirements of the Air Canada Act that privatized the company require that both languages are delivered throughout the company. You would think with this context that the CEO of one of the largest employers in Montreal and location of its headquarters that he would have taken French lessons the fact that he hasn't been able to in the last 5 years makes this unacceptable to a lot of Canadians but especially Quebecers
French has many dialects. The north american dialect is based on Canadian french there is also Acadian French and Cajun (a spin off for Acadien hence the name Cajun) There are also African dialects in French from the former colonies and metropolitan French. This is just like in Spanish, Portugese and of course English. You wouldn't say that Americans don't speak English would you
His inability or even reluctantness to speak French is a liability to the commercial success of his company. Quebec remains 25% of the market fo AC and this does not make him a good ambassador for the brand.
Do you think that if Ben Smith, running a much bigger airline, was able to learn French, Rousseau could have done so too?
Alternatively, Rousseau could have simply asked another senior executive, like Mark Galardo, to record a video in French.
Ben Smith runs a much bigger airline and was able to learn sufficient French to earn respect from customers and employees.
Do not tell me that M. Rousseau could not have achieved a sufficient level of proficiency in French after living 14 years in Montréal.
Yes you can live and run a business in Québec without speaking any French but his unwillingness to learn the language after he promissed to do so, is to a certain degree a failure in leadership.
At the end of the day, this does reflect good on him nor the BOD and it is having negative impact on the commercial success of the business.
Report the accident. That is more important than your lack of French language speaking skills.
This is at least the second time you've gone out of your way to insult the character/competence of two pilots who lost their lives, based on nothing more than your own ill-informed opinions. Many of us have pointed out the obvious flaws in your "understanding" of the situation yet you continue to hold these opinions near and dear to your heart. Surely you can be a better troll. Why is insulting the character of deceased pilots the hill you are choosing to die on?
Yes, one has to agree with you Hurdumb, you have a stupid login, you have made a most stupid comment and to top it all off, you have proved that you cannot read English either!
Stand in the corner dumbo, extract your thumb from your dumbbum and take your brain cell out of neutral …. Yes? …. 🙂
I read this several times and still do not quite know what you are trying to say. Feel free to write it in your mother tongue.
Quebecers are much more bilingual than the rest of Canada (around 46% of Quebecers can speak both languages). In Ontario, it's 10.8%; in BC, it's 6.6%. You can't live in English Canada with French, while in practice, you can do so the other way around in Montreal.
In Quebec, while the ID cards themselves are in French, their paperwork for things like a driver's license can be done in English, a complete non-issue.
All the other provinces are not bilingual at all. Try to get service in French in Flin Flon and you will see what I mean
Actually Quebec French differs from that spoken in France because it has not been changed as much by the evil English influence and is closer to how the language was spoken centuries ago. The hierarchy of French if you believe Parisians is Paris French, French spoken outside Paris, then French spoken in the colonies including Africa, the Caribbean, south east Asia and Quebec. Non Parisien francophones think people from Paris are insufferable snobs. The CEO is tone deaf.
As Air Canada should be most concerned with safety and making a profit, the CEO unable to speak French doesn't impact either. All air traffic control (yes, even a flight from Quebec City to Montreal) is in English. Must anger them, but then again he (the CEO, or DG in French) isn't a pilot.
Air Canada spends a great deal money printing everything in two languages to satisfy the French speaking. Canada spends billions each year to be bilingual. I don't live there so I guess should not care, but one visit to Montreal or Quebec City will help you realize bilingual them means you speak French first and only. I am fluent in French, but I speak English in Canada, even Quebec City (after all they are bilingual), then when they say something nasty to each other in French, I reply in well spoken French that they are "des imbéciles qui détestent l'anglais"
It is my experience that most in Canada have distain for Quebec.
Il serait approprié pour une entreprise canadienne, basée à Montréal, avec un vol en provenance de Montréal, de faire au moins une tentative de fournir une déclaration en français et en anglais.
Re: the CEO, it's hard to know competence from just public facing impressions. I think there are good CEO's that are not the face of a company and that's not their strength. That's totally fine.
However, I also think there are lots of bad CEO's that are really good at managing their Board and have benefitted from good enough financial performance to not be forced out (or in some cases...REALLY good relationships with their board that allow them to survive very poor financial performance).
Never apologise unless you've done something wrong. It just makes the fanatical extremists more bloodthirsty.
Simple observation:
Do Quebecers understand English? Yes.
Do other provincers understand French? No.
Stop kowtowing to cranky minorities.
It’s not a “dialect”, it is sh*t French. Go to France and ask what they think of this “dialect”. They will laugh in your face. And your effort to bring “American English” vs English shows you have no argument so you try and change the narrative. Why not throw in Spanish vs Mexican vs Central American version while you’re at it.
JJ- Shat I said is not wrong. Many aviation experts have already concluded that the stupid young pilots were at fault. But of course you liberals just can’t face the fact that the pilots were not listening to the activity on the ground that was being broadcast to every radio in the area. They simply were not listening and cost Air Canada a multi million dollar aircraft.
C'est simplement un Canadien égoïste qui ressent le besoin de surcompenser en intimidant les Canadiens qui ne parlent que l'anglais et ce, parce que les gens de France leur pissent dessus pour ne pas parler le 'vrai' français.
I happen to be tri-lingual English, Spanish, French with also a strong German ability. I understand that some people struggle with learning another language especially in adulthood. I am blessed with an easy ability with other languages. French can be quite difficult for English speakers but for Gods Sake ! You lived in the largest Francophone city outside of France (14 years ! ) in a French speaking Province in a bi-lingual nation.
Do better sir.
I don’t know the guy but in my mind this is an entirely pointless discussion.
If he’s doing a good job as CEO, his command of French is not relevant. If he’s doing a bad job, his command of French is irrelevant. The job description clearly did not require him to be bilingual. There are many executives, especially in this industry, who don’t speak the language of the country they work in (when was the last time anyone heard an Emirates CEO speak Arabic?).
Apparently 3 of the 4-person crew, and many passengers, originated in Montreal, where CEO Michael Rousseau - nearly 20yrs with AC now - has once again failed to make even a small portion of his remarks in French. This is at least the second time that he has publicly failed to do so at a sensitive time since becoming CEO. Note that he did not have to write the script; That not one of his minions failed to do the right thing and provide him with a script that he could have read is shameful. It's not about the accent, it's about effort - and respect.
Correct!
“It is a good rule in life never to apologize,” said the great English writer P.G. Wodehouse. “The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.”
Seriously? Such a tragic accident and this is what Canadians are arguing about?
Tell us you're not using this tragedy to show off your supposed (unproved) linguistic skills..
What a load of horse manure....
Had he received a script which he probably would have read in a somewhat halting, monotone, and mechanical sounding Québécois, he would also have been accused of being insensitive and not showing proper respect by clearly just reading a script rather than truly expressing himself.
He is in a no win situation.
As french-speaking Belgian, I totally get the language issue. Our politician love this to avoid to adress the real issues of our times.
This or that must be adressed ? No, let's talk about languages divisions.
Remember the tower of Babel...
Fun fact : his name. Rousseau... 🙂
"Stop kowtowing to cranky minorities."
That's how you'll end up with Quebec going independent from Canada, as they tried in 1995.
Just a guess but abortion is considered a women's health issue & 49.7% of the World's population are women
Not seeing how abortion as "...such a hot button issue..." relates to whatever percentage of Canada's population reacts or cares about
- the ability of the CEO of Air Canada to make an announcement in French, &/or
- the multi-lingual ability of their population in general
Don't believe that is allowed under the act that privatised Air Canada. Its quites specific with things like requiring maintenance bases in winnipeg. It was a politicans dream
I did also mention the dialects in Spanish, eg. Castilian Spanish vs Mexico vs Central america, Argentina and the same for Portuguese Brasil vs Portugal vs Angola.
Parisian and metorpolitan french would say the same for the Overseas territories as well so it doesn't ring true
Exactly. Greater Canada wants Quebec to stay. If they want Quebec to stay, they have to be bilingual. There's a choice and Canadians have made it. If you want to run a large company in Canada you're going to have to respect that. And, come on, they could have generated French sections with AI.
For those that don't know (and I found it super strange the first time I attended an official even there), speeches aren't given in one language and then the other. Rather, sections are given in one language and entirely new content in the other language. So as someone with zero language skills beyond English (really, I've tried, but I think the only way I'd get it is complete immersion) I would hear half a speech. It was strange. And I feel for Rousseau, but I'm also not trying to live in a french speaking city and run an airline where employees are expected to speak french. I'm very spoiled that much of the world speaks english!
These folks are delusional.
What a travesty! Disrespectful Mikey Russell must not realize Canada is a "bi-lingual" country? I wouldn't be surprised if the house of representatives starts moving to replace him as CEO. After 5 years of lessons in a language how have you not been able to "master" it? Fishy!!!! Called "not trying"?
Canadians don't even speak real French.
Far too many people around the world think that they can speak English …. however, here on the right side of the pond, we know better …. 🙂
WHO!?!?!?!
As a Canadian....this is just another eye roll moment in terms of the ongoing battle between english and french Canada.
I am from Ottawa and fully bilingual...but its annoying to see this as a political issue at the moment.
As much as I think Rousseau is a terrible CEO for non-language issues; we need more attention to the emergency at hand....i think this is an issue for say...a month from now.
The Canadian government needs to put their effort to push ATC changes in the USA. This distraction doesnt provide much credibility in that effort.
AC needs to be sensitive to customers and be there for all of Canada. But i dont think this is a political issue...but this is Canada....this is the national past-time of the ongoing tussle between Quebec/French and English Canada.
“I’ve been able to live in Montreal without speaking French, and I think that’s a testament to the city of Montreal.”
Certainly not a testament to your empathy, your open-mindness, nor your learning skills
This is a nothing-burger. No one is seriously upset with Air Canada or its CEO. The pilots are heroes. RIP.
This particular crowd of Canadian citizens is never satisfied. They've been this way for decades.
A plane crashed. People are dead. But they're vocally angry that an executive doesn't speak sufficient French in his sympathy video.
Oh, to live in a world where THIS keeps you up at night.
Also, notice that the Official Languages Committee - an actual standing committee of the Canadian House of Commons - has summoned him to give sworn testimony about his lack of French.
The government has not summoned him to talk about safety, or training, or accident response. They don't care about that. They just want to know why his French is so limited.
I could understand the angst if Air Canada was government owned, but it was privatized long ago.
So does this mean the CEOs that have been/were running foreign airlines in Asia, Africa, Europe and Middle East need to be fluent in the languages of where their airlines are located? Absolutely not.
You’re hired to a do a job, not be a polyglot.
If he’s not competent at his job, that’s one thing. But if he’s not fluent in Québécois French, go find something more important to criticize (and yes, I didn’t call it “French” because it’s not French from France - it’s Quebec’s language, and not a dialect).
The language police and other critics of this issue really need to do something more productive with their time.
Signed,
an Anglophone who lived in Montréal once and still remains turned off and annoyed by Law 101 up there - and continues to watch the province destroy itself and its economy with this nonsense.
(yes, I actually speak some French and Québécois French but apparently it’s not good enough for anyone up there)
The French Canadians may not like to admit it, but English is the principal language of business all over the world. It also happens to be the majority language of Canada, a bilingual country. And hundreds of thousands of people live very full and rewarding lives in Montreal with little or no ability to speak French. It may not be politically correct to say it, but that’s the truth. Senior airline executives have more pressing demands on their time than learning another language.
Team No One here. Air Canada knew its CEO had language issues, given past spats, and should have been able to avoid this PR gaffe. That said, the Quebecois obsession with language drove most of Canada’s big companies out of Quebec in the 1970s, other than state/provincial owned ones. The provincial government props up the economy, but it’s not sustainable.
I can't understand how a country would still speak french in the 21. century.
Could it be because it’s one of the official languages of the country, millions of people speak it within the country and it’s part of the historical fabric of the country? Just spitballing.
This is obviously something Canadians care very much about and very little of the rest of the world cares about. Canadians please explain bc many other countries have multiple official languages but the corporations in those companies choose just a single language when making public statements
Enlighten me why abortion is such a hot button issue that continues to rile up people of all stripes when other more pressing issues are swept under the rug. Canadians do not care about this issue only the French Quebecois. Those who do tend to feel aggrieved by the injustice of some sort like a small section in this country.
I honestly think he should have done better with his French. He could have at least gotten someone to write a script in French and practised it before recording the video. I'm from a non francophone African country and have lived in Montreal for 5 years and can hold conversations in French. This guy has been here for more than a decade. I stand with the French Canadians in this. People should make effort to integrate
Nasr is interesting as he was very visible during the new aeroplan rollout, genuinely engaged with the FF community and seemed super sharp. Unfortunately, his performance during the labour disruption was a bit of a disaster. The "We've got to get the planes back in the sky" CP24 video is worth checking out. Ben Smith is interesting as he's done a great job with labour at AF, which people thought was mission impossible.
NATIONAL DISGRACE.
La seule chose qui compte, c'est d'accumuler beaucoup de points de fidélité. Il est également important d'utiliser ces points.
French-English language conflict in Canada is as old and often as black-white gender issue in the States. They almost seceded from Canada in late 1995 with the vote count of 49.6% approval rate. Fortunately, they were not as imbecile as the British approving Brexit referendum. Yet, they consistently receive the most government coffer while contributing much less compare to western provinces. They also enjoy more opportunities to gain federal government employment, via various co-ops programs in universities. Heck, Moroccans speak French like French native speakers. Many French native speakers say that they do not understand French Quebecois that they speak English with each other. One guy explained that French Quebecois speak " thirteen century French farmers' language". Learning French is much more challenging than learning English because it involves masculin/ feminine and other weird circumflex accents. Five years of intense learning French (not immersion) will not pass proficient standard, but may earn you "passable" knowledge.
AI would have helped with this easily in this day and age.