None of know and no reason why we should (privacy) what other actions Rousseau has taken with regard to the deceased.
Maybe he personally called the families. Maybe he visited them.
Trial by media, politicians, pack mentality is just brutal.

Sure he's a bean counter with outward personality like dial tone, doesn't make him an uncompassionate or uncaring person though.

It is awful that a tragedy that will forever impact so many families (pilots, ATC, fire fighters, FAs, pax) has turned into political theatre.
I thought better of Carney than wading into that quagmire by rendering a public opinion.

I know this is a little off topic, but Carney's office answering service was in English only, until yesterday. Maybe Rousseau should bring this up with the Language police and with the fact Quebec greatly restricts English

This language nonsense is just plain ridiculous. The fact certain sphincters have chosen to try and politicise a tragedy like this is nothing less than nauseating.

This and then some! Air Canada, by virtue of the terms under which is was privatized has a burden put upon it that does nothing but add to their costs, costs which all of us PAX are forced to pay.

Shouldn't companies be allowed to serve their Customers in the manner in which the Customers want to be served? AC offers (by choice) service on many flights in many different languages because that's what the PAX on those flights want, and they do it without the government shoving it down their throats.

While pathetic that this issue has been brought to light in the wake of a horrible tragedy, maybe it's time to un-shackle AC from the extra mandatory cost that we all pay and let them decide how to serve their customers?

An important moderator note:

Folks, there's a degree of politics that's unavoidable when discussing AC and official languages. While quite a few members think the whole thing is too political and doesn't belong in this forum, I've tried to create space for people to express their opinions on AC, Rousseau, how they're being treated by the government, whether AC is meeting its obligations. Where things are borderline, I've tried to err on the side of allowing debate, trying to only delete comments that are clearly off topic or discriminatory.

That being said, there have been a disappointing number of recent posts that go beyond criticizing political grandstanding or AC's inability to provide adequate service in official languages to all sorts of political commentary that has no place in the AC forum. This is not the place to talk about Quebec's place in Canada, whether French should be an official language, the general performance of any federal or provincial government, etc. That's what OMNI/PR is for. Although I will also note that a few comments have demonstrated sufficient prejudice that I suspect my colleagues over there wouldn't allow them either - FlyerTalk is not the place to cast aspersions on speakers of a language, people from a certain geographic area, etc.

I will ask that members make a concerted effort to confine their comments to AC, its language obligations, and politicians' conduct specifically on those matters, and leave the rest of it to some other venue.

This seems to suggest a failure within the executive suite at AC. No competent communications team should have allowed this to happen (and I don't doubt the competence of any of the working level within the organization), or their advice and guidance is being ignored. Rousseau did not have to make a video statement--the company could have issued a written release in both languages and no one would have batted an eye. Having made the decision to go with a video statement, someone should have put their foot down and required him to either read from a bilingual message on a teleprompter; or have a francophone senior executive deliver the corresponding statement in french. Throwing in, "bonjour," and, "merci," does not make a statement bilingual.

Someone should have had the courage to stop him from doing something so tone deaf. I would readily believe that someone did, and he went plowing full steam ahead, regardless. Time will tell whether my belief is borne out.

Regardless of what we thing about official languages, or the timing of the political uproar, it raises relevant questions about how management at the airline is going about making decisions--how much is senior management paying attention to subject matter experts?
What is the impact that this will have on the workforce? While the company has never had a particularly great reputation for treating its people with respect, this can hardly be expected to lift morale among people that will already be reeling, somewhat.
How much attention is being given to protecting the brand? Whatever the armchair airline execs in this forum feel, this is now the story. The first attempts at regaing control of the narrative have been laugable. The board might want to ask some pointed questions.

Impact on the workforce?

100% think the government is completely out of line and using this tragedy to score political points is completely unacceptable.

Air Canada’s CEO was appointed on the basis of his managerial abilities.

Now, as the CEO of Canada’s largest airline, knowing at least some French, while not a requirement, would only be an asset. He has committed to learning French, and learning a new language later in life is not easy, as I know from personal experience, having started to learn English after the age of 40. Being able to “baragouine” a few sentences in French within a few years will be an accomplishment for him.

In this situation, given that one of the pilots who passed away was Qu�b�cois, he could have prepared a short written message in French to properly extend Air Canada’s condolences to the pilot’s family in their own language. To do that, however, the CEO would have needed to show a degree of sensitivity, and this is where, in my view, both he and his communications team fell short.

From my own experience, after flying with Air Canada for a few decades, I have come to believe that this lack of sensitivity filters down from the top. I say this based on a few incidents, such as a crew member opening an aircraft lavatory door from the outside, with the door fully closed and the “occupied” indicator clearly visible, without first checking whether anyone was inside by knocking or asking, and then showing no sensitivity even after the matter was brought to the attention of this very CEO and several Air Canada managers or another incident in which, after a late arrival at a European airport, the mobile boarding stairs took a long time to reach the aircraft. When a business-class passenger anxiously asked what options she had to avoid missing her connection, a crew member responded, “Yeah, you could jump onto the tarmac to make things go quicker.”

The Prime Minister’s expression of disappointment with the CEO is nothing more than a political gimmick. His team could instead examine why Air Canada has been allowed to accumulate an 18-month backlog of complaints (from their website) and press for prompt resolutions.

IMO this is a far more valid reason to have disdain for AC's CEO (and Executive team in general) than his inability to speak French. The general contempt they show for their Customers by actively flouting the regulations that they lobbied so hard to have watered down is almost unbelievable, more so that they are allowed to get away with it by the politicians and regulators. This week's little miscue by Rousseau is just another log on that fire.

IntermittentFlyer - Exactly. You make several very relevant points.

I agree with what seems to be the emerging consensus of the group: The actions of the Mr. Rousseau confirm the general disdain for staff (and customers) that has the C-Suite as its source. That's a general approach of not bothering to consider how a policy, process, or action might be received by those who interact with Air Canada.

In this case, there were a myriad of better options that would have shown empathy and respect for those who speak French which should have been a consideration given the origin of the flight (from Montreal, Quebec) with a partially francophone crew.

In my view there is a disagreement about whether the CEO of Air Canada should have at least some proficiency in French. Respectfully, this was answered 5 years ago at the first round of apologizing for not knowing French. Mr. Rousseau admitted under oath his French should be better (at the House of Commons) (see page 1 of this thread) and stated in his news Release in 2021 in English, "I pledge today to improve my French . . . I reiterate Air Canada's commitment to show respect for French and, as leader, I will set the tone."

His real issue is now in 2026 he is setting the tone and there's at least a suggestion that his pledge was false.

Given the history, it is fair for this CEO to be called to account for what appears to be disrespect for the language, crew, and employees.

As this is another example of issues with tone (at large) set by leadership it is also reasonable to question whether different leadership is the proper result.

The only disrespect that has been shows is towards the families of the dead pilots by politicians and certain media people using this tragedy to try and score political points.

That opinion is contradicted by the facts.

It was not respectful to have unequal methods of communication between English and French (there was no video in French).

The complaints that have come in from those affected confirm there is a feeling of disrespect.

Reverse the scenario: a video in only French would have disrespected English.

There were a number of other options available. Mr. Rousseau chose a path that was not respectful.

So as to avoid confusing duplication between this thread and the one about Rousseau's retirement that was announced this morning, I've moved a couple of posts from here to there and closed this thread. It may be reopened at some point in the future if there's a reason to do so, but for the time being, it seems sensible to have a single place to talk about his departure and what might have led to it.

- your friendly neighbourhood moderator