Transpacificflyer

Air Canada is the dominant airline in Canada. The two dominant languages spoken in Canada as mother tongue are English (approx. 55-58%) and French (22%-26%) depending on which data set one uses.
Other languages may be popular in some big cities but they are not official languages of Canada. The assertion that some foreign languages have equal status to Canada's two official languages is a false narrative. This is the same argument that has been used to diminish the obligations and rights of Canada's First Nations and it is weak. Whatever the foreign language may be and as wonderful as it may, it will have no legal standing in Canada. One of the key obligations of a company leader is to be able to communicate clearly with the employees, the customers and the stakeholders. Air Canada is a Canadian company with the majority of its business generated from Canadian related activity.

Yes, AC has a presence in the foreign markets you reference (well, perhaps not China now, since AC has been shut out of the mainland passenger market for over a year and most likely won't return to the mainland until the end of 2022,and in any case, a visit to the PRC for the typical Canadian is probably as desirable as a case of shingles.) Besides, AC didn't control its access to the PRC. In respect to your point, it is best if you review the Canadian travel data. Most of the AC passengers traveling to and from the Latin American and EU destinations are Canadians. Prior to Covid, visitors from Europe to Canada were trending downwards. Latin America traffic to Spanish speaking destinations was driven by Canadians.

We can go back and forth on this, but the fundamental core issue is that the CEO screwed up. He gave a display of arrogance that was cringeworthy. Maybe he panicked, or maybe he just misspoke. Only Rousseau knows. What he failed to do was to own the issue and to manage the crisis. I don't think he will be long for this job, unless he has a change in attitude and makes a few PR displays of contrition. He has become a distraction and a liability. AC's fastest growing hub is Montreal. it has benefited from a favourable provincial policy on the support of small regional airports. By extension, the support of service to the Quebec regional airports has also helped residents of Labrador and New Brunswick and indirectly supported traffic to Halifax. The Quebec pension fund financing of the new REM light railway will indirectly benefit AC's hub as it makes the airport more accessible. AC is the dominant presence at YUL and has an interest in getting the REM changes needed. With a CEO who has engaged in the equivalent of voiding his bladder in public view of a matron aunt, it won't bode well for advancing the AC political agenda.

Adam Smith

Understanding a market doesn't require speaking the language. A certain number of people in the organization in sales/marketing, operations, government relations, etc will need the ability to communicate with locals in their language, but a CEO doesn't need to speak the customers' language to understand what his team tells him about demand, pricing, etc. He's not the one negotiating slots with the local airport authority, filling out regulatory paperwork, or anything else that requires a working knowledge of the language.

We can debate all we want about the political/PR aspects of AC's CEO speaking French, but let's acknowledge that this has nothing to do with his ability to do his job effectively.

AltaBound

But the Government is a shareholder and a lender... to the tune of up to $5 billion dollars. If I had that type of investment in an organization you bet your booties I would have more than a passing interest in how the organization operates as would any other lender. Remember it is the taxpayer's dollars that are at risk!

Air Canada and Government of Canada Conclude Agreements on Liquidity Program - Apr 12, 2021 (mediaroom.com)

canadiancow

But as a shareholder, shouldn't you be trying to maximize value? Like not wasting the CEO's time on something that isn't going to help the government recover that $5B ?

Symmetre

This is spot-on, and makes me wonder what the outcry would be in Quebec if it were revealed that AC's new CEO couldn't speak English? Something tells me no one would give a hoot, and that expectation inequality is the real problem.

yulred

How many Canadian CEOs who sell goods and services across Canada - including Quebec - are fully bilingual, or held to this standard?

As an aside, this stuff about foreign languages is a red herring. Literally no one has claimed that “foreign” languages should be given official status in Canada. On the contrary, they’ve pointed out that fluency in a language is not a prerequisite for serving a market. A point that is self evidently true - how many western airline CEOs speak a lick of mandarin or Hindi?

What are you trying to argue here? That AC has no “foreign” market in countries where English and French aren’t official languages? I get that you’re pushing some type of “two official languages only” narrative, but that is a self-evidently false argument.

I watched the video. It’s here:


It strikes me as being less of a “display of arrogance that was cringeworthy” as someone put on the defensive by reporters out to get him. Case in point - the first reporter, who posed the question in French, got a frank admission from Rousseau that his comprehension wasn’t good, and a polite request to repeat the question in English, which was duly followed up by the same question … in French (which admittedly made me cringe). His PR aide then jumps in, and he ends up diving back in to protect her - stepping right back into the glare so that she doesn’t have to. (Somewhere out there, that’s considered to be a leadership trait, but who’s counting.)

But since we’re discussing the crux of the matter, let’s be blunt about what this (and, indeed, your post) is: a deliberate character assassination. The AC CEO does not speak one of the two official languages of Canada, so off with his head - he must be made an example of. Let’s write off everything he’s done in his professional life because he turned towards the media scrum instead of the exit.

It’s a little too punitive, to the point of being perceived as threatening. Which may be what Canadian bilingualism is all about, but, as always, when one enters this territory, Newton’s third law poses a real risk.

RangerNS

Well, now having seen the raw footage, this seems even more unfair to him personally, and AC generally.

We don't know his internal truth, can't know that, but he answered a personal question in a very direct and personal way. Maybe he is truly ashamed of the gap in his skills, maybe he secretly wishes a language genocide. He gave a suitable professional answer to a personal question.

The followup question about living in Montreal I think he answered with grace, celebrating what is a special, world class, city. His success (and that of AC, IATA, Bell Canada, and other orgs HQd in Montreal) should be celebrated, not denigrated.

The Lev

You are making false assumptions around the quote of mine that you used. I referenced those languages not in relation to the official languages of Canada but rather to your assertion that:
It is in AC's best interest to serve its target market customers in their preferred language and Air Canada does that far better than most businesses in Canada. Likewise it is important to have a diverse management team that represents the markets you serve. Again, I believe air Canada fulfils that mandate. that does not mean the CEO needs to speak both official languages for the airline to thrive. As others have pointed out, neither Monty Brewer nor Robert Milton spoke French yet they managed to successfully run a bilingual carrier. It is certainly a desirable characteristic for business leaders who aim to serve the national market to speak both official languages but rarely is it a requirement - and where it is, that should be the decision of the board of directors not politicians.

I clearly lack Quebecois sensibilities but having listened to the Q&A, I fail to see how his answers were "cringeworthy" - if anything, I found the continuing questions by the reporters on that topic cringeworthy - but obviously YMMV. His answers seemed open and straightforward and eventually he tried to steer the conversation back to "business" and away from the language minefield.

A reporter did ask one interesting question that was not addressed... To paraphrase and translate, he basically said that when you applied for the job you indicated that you were bilingual when you clearly are not - don't you feel any shame about that. I'm guessing that the reporter assumed that being bilingual was a requirement for the job; but based on previous unilingual holders of the office, I suspect the reporter assumed incorrectly. If the reporter is correct, then Rousseau and the AC board do have something to answer to. As I reflect, it probably was best that Rousseau did not address that question because it would have only further inflamed Quebec sensibilities.

totti

Thanks for pointing this out! It was exactly what I thought. The question is not so much whether or not someone needs certain language skills to do their job (though empirical evidence suggests it is not necessary but certainly helps). It is rather a question of whether or not it was part of the job description or a promise he made early in his tenure that he either lied about or did not deliver on.

yulred

Given that AC has has unilingual CEOs in the past, it’s fairly unlikely that they changed the job description for him (or recently).

As to whether it was a promise he made early in his tenure (as CEO?), he did take on this job in the middle of the pandemic, which would probably qualify as mitigating circumstances.

Unless there’s evidence that the job required bilingual competency beforehand, throwing around lazy and accusations of lying in the middle of this kind of episode - with demands of resignation - is not going to do anyone any favours. At what point do we agree that this criticism has gone beyond the pale?

The Lev

Realistically the answer is never. Keep in mind that criticizing Bill 21 is considered beyond the pale.

Dave510

I wonder if the image Quebec is projecting here does more harm than good. After all, should all businesses expect criticism if they choose to headquarter themselves in Quebec and appoint a CEO that isn’t bilingual? AC does not have a choice in the matter, but many companies do.

Adam Smith

You make a good point, but the more that large national/international businesses pull away from Quebec, the less anglophone and less diverse the province becomes, which increases the chances of separation. So as much as it would hurt the Quebec economy, if AC were to leave, it would be a boost to the nationalists.

YUL

I'm still perplexed how this debate keeps wading throught a supposed obligation / requirement for Air Canada's CEOs to be bilangual from the get go.
--> That just never existed!

This is strickly a PR boondoggle that could have been totally prevented.

Hollis L. Harris, Robert Milton, Montie Brewer etc never got themself into such a mess. And they also sometime faced loaded questionning from some reporters, and they still managed w/o any difficulties.

And in the end, did any of those former CEOs ever actually bothered to learned french? 🙄
That should give you a clue on Montréal language realities. And yes, a "testament to the city" indeed.

This is strickly a PR disaster. Don't read anything more into it.

I just find terrible Mr Rousseau (or his PR team) messed up here. He seemed to be the exact type of boss I like (frank, to the point, no bs etc).

Regards

yulred

You’re perplexed that a manufactured “PR disaster”, complete with pre-meditated loaded questions that paved the way for character assassination includes falsehoods/ accusations of lies?

It is (and always has been) part and parcel of the “manufactured PR disaster” playbook.

The only way anyone could have prevented this is by not appointing a non-bilingual. The moment they did, they drew a target on his back.

I think it’s clear as day that - in this particular case - it takes two to tango. As bad as his misstep was, what’s followed has been far worse.