Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air-canada-ceo-michael-rousseau-retires-9.7146886
On a more serious note, Air Canada CEO Michael Rosseau has announced plans to retire at the end of the year.
I’m assuming you’ve heard about the tragedy in LaGardia Airport with the Air Canada plane that crashed into a fire truck and cost the lives to its two pilots. Air Canada is a Canadian company based out of Montreal, which is in the province of Quebec. Canada has two official languages; English and French. When the CEO came out to express his condolences, he did so in English only. One of the pilots was Quebecois. The French speaking community, naturally, threw a fit and asked for his head. He delivered a written apology. Not good enough. Off with his head… and so he plans to step down later this year.
Naturally, prayers and wishes to the families of Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther in this trying time.
I honestly wish that more effort was made in celebrating the lives of two pilots who went above and beyond the call of duty to keep their passengers safe… only to be overshadowed by what I feel are somewhat petty language issues. Every time I hear OLEF giving a notice to someone’s Instagram or a bad with Irish decorations, I roll my eyes and grimace. The morons running this government have no time to fix their potholes or fund their medical sectors to procure more top of the line equipment to deal with their sick, but they’ve no problems spending money on spies to see who’s speaking acceptable levels of French at their places of work.
With that said, Michael Rosseau had a previous language-related controversy back in 2021 that also involved him speaking no lick of French in his statement and people cried foul. He said he’d do better and stuck around, but now five years later and despite taking French immersion classes, he still couldn’t muster a few quick words in French… and he runs a major airline based out of a province whose only official language is French and anyone who doesn’t speak French deserves to die or something. Someone in that position, who’s getting paid loads of money to run that expansive business in Canada and can’t speak a lick of French… I’m sorry, but why is this guy allowed to be CEO?
It’s one thing if you’re a lowly worker down the food chain and you only speak a little of one or the other. It’s another thing when you’re the head of a national corporation and fluency in both official languages of Canada is not only required, but should be expected, especially if you have to issue a statement regarding prevailing circumstances. I’ve got nothing against the man personally; I’m sure he’s a swell guy, but him being piefaced over not speaking French five years ago and then doing so again despite claims to have taken courses… yeah, I can say that I’m more francophone that this guy is, and my French is just good enough to get by, but not enough for me to run Air Canada.
Moral of the story; if you’re gonna apply for a job and it requires fluency in both English and French, you’d better be fluent in both English and French.
I’ll post something happier later.
