Air Canada’s CEO Michael Rousseau will step down by the end of the third quarter, after recording a condolence video in English (with French subtitles) about the tragedy of their Jazz flight to New York LaGuardia which was struck by an emergency vehicle.
Air Canada President and CEO Michael Rousseau provides a video statement on the tragic accident involving Air Canada Express AC8646: pic.twitter.com/ZwFibpOkj2
— Air Canada (@AirCanada) March 23, 2026
As an American, it’s hard not to look on the Canadian reaction to this and think of Canada as an unserious country. What clearly matters was the loss of life. And the next step is to learn from the incident. Any blame will be assigned to a probable cause. Should air traffic control have been handled differently? Should emergency services crossing an active runway be handled differently? And we’ll make air travel safer because of it.
This Whole Episode Is Not About Toronto
But Canadian politics have focused on Rousseau speaking two words in French and offering French subtitles, but not speaking in French. That seems ridiculous on its face, but it makes a little bit more sense in the context of Canadian politics.
- Air Canada was a state corporation, fully privatized in the late 1980s. Its IPO occurred in October 1988, and the government sold its majority shareholding in July 1989.
- The Air Canada Public Participation Act, though, says that while the company is to operate under ordinary corporate law, the head office must be in the Montreal Urban Community, and that the Official Languages Act applies to it. It’s easy to think of Air Canada as ‘Toronto’ but formally that is not the case.
- Air Canada received a pandemic bailout and the government became on of its largest shareholders with a 6% stake. In the role as shareholder, Deputy Prime Minister told the board to make the CEO’s French speaking ability part of his performance review.
- Michael Rousseau was not violating any law. The video appears to have complied with the plain language of the Official Languages Act. But there’s also a legal positivist interpretation here, the law is what the government says it is. Parliament’s official languages committee summoned Rousseau and the Commissioner of Official Languages received hundreds of complaints.
There is a political backdrop to all of this. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party does not have a majority in Parliament’s House of Comements. They hold 170 out of 343 seats (172 seats is a majority).
Three seats are up for grabs on April 13 in a by-election. One of those seats is Terrebonne, in the Montreal area. The Liberal Party holds the most seats in Quebec, but number two is Bloc Québécois.
- Quebec is the center of French-speaking Canada.
- Resentment over English dominance fueled the rise of Quebec separatism in the 1970s. Quebec is about 80% French-speaking.
- In 2021, Rousseau apologized after giving a Montreal speech almost entirely in English and promised to improve his French.
- One of the dead pilots of that LaGuardia flight was a French-speaking Quebecer.
The CEO of Air Canada, a Montreal-based airline, was already under language scrutiny, and responded to a fatal crash involving a Quebec pilot and he did so in English.
That may not seem like it’s what should matter, but the party in power is already on team French Quebec, and needs that support to remain in power. 43 of their seats in Parliament – or a full quarter – come from Quebec. And the government exercises significant power over the company as a former Crown Corporation with special ongoing obligations in the area of language, and as the airline’s regulator.
The point is not that Canadian politics is uniquely stupid. This is a very Canadian power struggle. This isn’t about the video, it’s about Quebec’s relative status. Politics is not, first and foremost, about policy.
The really important questions about this incident will be addressed but those take time. Politics doesn’t wait for that. It privileges symbolism, empathy, and identity and makes us all dumber.
Surely whichever team you’re on, you can come up with examples of where the other side does that in the United States, too.
Pointing out the obvious, but if Canada continues down the path they are going, they will be Canadastan very shortly and they will all speaking Arabic, not English, and not French.
@ Common Sense — Racist much?
Maybe Quebec will finally secede. Dont go away mad, just go away.
English or French, people died and got hurt. What is the big deal?!
Canadian Government = Hateful and Racist.
“ As an American, it’s hard not to look on the Canadian reaction to this and think of Canada as an unserious country”
Did you seriously “write” this with a straight face. It will be another 100 years before Americans can call another country unserious.
@Ray “as an American” in this case = “as an outsider.” I am not suggesting “American serious, Canada not” did you read the piece the whole way through? If not *skip to the last sentence.*
Lol it’s definitely uniquely stupid. You know the Swiss speak 3-4 languages and they’re not retarded like these dopes.
This is a fine summary of the Canadian political situation that led to the resignation/retirement.
@Gene…
“Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.” Herman Melville
The Air Canada Public Participation Act Sec 10 preserves the requirement for bilingual communications and services. AC is subject to Official Languages Act. Slapping a French subtitle in the video may satisfy those laws, but I doubt it. Their onboard safety video is indeed spoken both in English and French.
It’s all about the respect and gesture: he could just read a prepared statement. Or he could’ve one of his execs read it.
Seriously, though, he’s lived in Montreal for almost 20 years, and is it all he can say in French? I’ve never lived in Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia, yet I speak better Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian than him in French. Nobody can do everything well, but it’s stunning to see someone who makes heck a lot more money than I do struggling with French. Or apparent lack of effort.
So he chose to retire, he was at the retirement age anyway with a great retirement bonus. Everyone won?
“As an American, it’s hard not to look on the Canadian reaction to this and think of Canada as an unserious country.”
Yeah, man. I’m sure that if a guy from Puerto Rico became the CEO of a major company on the US mainland and refused to learn to speak English, then the American public would be very cool and serious about it.
This is typical quebec BS
I am a dual citizen (actually quintuple citizen, 5 passports) and live in canada for the last 15 years
The chip on the shoulder of the quebec idiots is astonishing, and that is why the rest of canada hates these pr1cks
I hope they secede, the only good thing they make is maple syrup
I really don’t think this is as odd as many seem to. As a western Canadian, if it was WestJet flight that crashed with a pilot from Calgary and the CEO recorded a condolence message strictly in French, there would have been a much bigger uproar in Alberta. And I think, having lived in Florida for 8 years, if a CEO of a US airline, any US airline, recorded a condolence message only in Spanish, there would be lynch mobs
@Sco
Oh, you might mean having a singer headline the biggest (& most expensive sports event in the US) & having him sing in Spanish? I didn’t see people (well not many) go crazy & demand the resignation of …? See, it possible to suck it up & see the bigger picture. Not getting your panties in a wad & maybe the world might get a bit civil…
@Gene: You are going to have back that up.
Gary, if he recorded two videos – one in French and one in English – would there still be an uproar? That’s putting aside the fact that Michael Rousseau may not be able to speak French fluently.