yulred: "The only way anyone could have prevented this is by not appointing a non-bilingual"
And can you explain how Hollis L. Harris, Robert Milton, Montie Brewer etc got appointed no problems, then also faced sometime loaded questions.
But somehow never got themself into such a mess?
And worst, last week Air Canada was told ahead of time of the huge potential PR difficulties they could be facing.
But somehow, no PR preparation whatsoever was done apparently.
(He just needed to show a "willingness" to learn French, really)
Yes, I lived in Montreal during Brewer’s time, and much of Milton’s time.
The language issue wasn’t as charged then, as it has been for the past 2-3 years. Anecdotally, I know people who’re planning to leave, or have left, Montreal because this has gotten so charged. People who’ve lived there for decades.
That he was warned in advance of an ambush does not absolve those who set out to ambush him (after all, ambushes are not good-faith exercises).
Sure, he’s made mistakes here, as has AC PR. But none of them justify what’s followed. There were always two kinds of reactions possible here:
1) encourage him to learn French, preferably in a polite manner
2) deem it “unacceptable” and demand his resignation, accuse him of lying to get his job, demanding that unilinguals be banned from the job, and the litany of personal attacks and character assassination going around.
Let’s not forget that he has apologized and made a commitment to learn French. And we both know how much difference that’s made.