Air Canada CEO Faces Backlash for English-Only Condolences After Deadly Crash

Air Canada Express Flight 8646, carrying passengers from Montreal to LaGuardia Airport in New York, struck a fire truck on the runway while landing late Sunday, killing both pilots, Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther, and sending more than 40 people to hospital. Forest was a French-speaking Quebecer. Within hours, CEO Michael Rousseau posted a video response that ignited a separate crisis entirely.

Rousseau shared a four-minute condolence video online that included only two French words: "bonjour" and "merci." In the video, he called the crash "a very dark day for Canada" and expressed his condolences to the families of the pilots. The rest of the message was delivered in English, with French subtitles.

The reaction from Ottawa was swift and pointed. Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking to reporters before the weekly Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa, said the decision to release the video message only in English showed a "lack of judgment and lack of compassion." "We proudly live in a bilingual country, and companies like Air Canada particularly have a responsibility to always communicate in both official languages, regardless of the situation," Carney said. He added: "I will follow his comments closely and comments which I would expect in due course from the board of directors."

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, whose riding is in Montreal, said that given "a lot of the victims and their families are francophones," the video showed a "lack of empathy." Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller said: "This isn't the first time that he's been told to speak French and he should know better."

The backlash was fiercest in Quebec. Quebec Premier François Legault pointed out that Rousseau had committed to learning French in 2021 and called for him to resign. "If he still doesn't speak French today, it's disrespectful to his employees and to his francophone customers. So yes, I think that if he doesn't speak French, he should resign," Legault said ahead of question period at the National Assembly. Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette described Rousseau as a "repeat offender," saying he has a history of disrespect for French as an official language, and called on Air Canada to force him to resign.

The Official Languages Committee voted on Tuesday afternoon to call Rousseau to the capital to answer for the video. "The ten elected members of the committee unanimously adopted a motion to ask the CEO of Air Canada to come and explain himself," the committee said in a statement. As of Wednesday afternoon, Rousseau found himself the target of some 795 complaints to the Commissioner of Official Languages.

Air Canada defended Rousseau's decision. Spokesperson Christophe Hennebelle said Rousseau wanted to address "everyone affected by the tragedy, whether directly or indirectly," himself, and "therefore 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," Hennebelle wrote.

It was not Rousseau's first language scandal. Not long after taking the top job, he became embroiled in controversy over a 26-minute speech in Montreal in which he spoke French for just 20 seconds, at a time when he had already been living in Montreal for 14 years. The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages received more than 2,600 complaints after that 2021 incident, and Rousseau was summoned to Parliament then as well. In response to that backlash, Rousseau wrote a letter to Air Canada's employees, in French, saying he had started courses with a private tutor.

The collision itself, according to early reports, appears to be a case of air traffic controller error: one air traffic controller had been navigating both air and ground traffic all day on Sunday, and the crash was both the worst Air Canada crash in decades and the first fatal crash at LaGuardia in 30 years. Carney said Canadian officials continue to work in close collaboration with their American counterparts to determine how the crash happened. Whether Rousseau survives the political pressure long enough to face the parliamentary committee remains an open question his own board has yet to answer publicly.