Mastodawn

Air Canada is subject to the Official Languages Act.

Air Canada's CEO has lived in Montréal for 20 years.

Air Canada's CEO promised to learn French 5 years ago.

Air Canada's CEO makes over 10 millions CAD every year.

Air Canada's linguistic plan says: "We also promote and advocate for the use of English and French in the workplace.
Our organization has language obligations, and supporting our efforts to be accountable to and meet these obligations are our employees who seize language training opportunities. Air Canada has developed and continues to grow a robust repository of resources and tools to champion language learning for our employees."

@stephanie Air Canada does this little demonstration of how corporate responsibility at the executive level is essentially meaningless unless responsibility is something valued by the organization and its leadership.

@stephanie Roseau could be fired tomorrow and live a very comfortable life with his $17 M in shareholder benefits, that’s tax sheltered … https://aviationa2z.com/index.php/2025/03/18/air-canada-ceo-michael-rousseau-salary-and-compensation/

Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau Salary and Compensation

Here is a look at who Michael Rousseau, the CEO of Air Canada is, and how much his annual salary and compensation in 2023 and 2024.

Aviation A2Z

Mary Margaret 🇨🇦🌈🇺🇦 ☮️ 🍸9h ago

It makes seriously question how these people can justify their salaries.

Time for him to go.

M. Verdone 9h ago

@stephanie a company, and people in general I believe, should be judged by what they do, not what they say.

Similarly I think a law must be judged by how it is enforced. What will the province of Quebec do?

Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️‍🌈4h ago

@sixohsix @stephanie it can’t do anything because Air Canada is a federally-regulated company, thus exempt from provincial labour and linguistic laws

anyGould 9h ago

@stephanie Counterpoint - do we really expect him to repeat every sentence he says, every day of the year? Are we not just training these execs to *not* put a personal touch on things and just let the PR department spit out a standard statement duly translated?

Stéphanie 9h ago

@anyGould Giving a message to the family and community of a dead pilot vs repeating every single sentence he ever says.

Come on.

anyGould 9h ago

@stephanie I'd be more pissed if the family message is a public statement and not an actual phone call. But the point stands - we really expect him to repeat himself? We don't expect the PM or MPs to do that.

Stéphanie 9h ago

@anyGould What are you even talking about. The PM and MPs do it *every day*. Or they alternate between both in a speech.

anyGould 9h ago

@stephanie Alternate isn't what they're calling for here though, is it? They wanted him to say the whole thing twice. (And being from Alberta, I promise you most of those CPC MPs stopped taking French in grade 6. :/ )

Stéphanie 9h ago

@anyGould That's a lie, that's not what was asked of him

anyGould 9h ago

@stephanie That's what I'm reading from the CBC reporting. Why aren't we focusing on "are the families of these pilots going to be taken care of properly" or "why do we still fly to the US when they basically don't have ATC anymore?", instead of "he only said two words in French". But I'll throw the question to you - how do you think he should have done it? How much English is "too much"?

Stéphanie 9h ago

@anyGould I've read dozens of articles. None of them say that he should have said everything in both languages.

A whole sentence in French? That would have been respectful.

Also we can have more than one debate at the same time.

Renata 🇨🇦🐈6h ago

@stephanie @anyGould I work for a certain Canadian company and the internal CEO communication is always bilingual. It doesn’t seem to be a challenge or big deal. I receive bilingual communications every single day.

It’s really bizarre to me that Air Canada couldn’t bother to do ONE bilingual statement.

E ninguém fala Português mesmo então pra mim nem faz diferença.

Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️‍🌈4h ago

@anyGould @stephanie enough to at least show he cared as much for the family of the Francophone pilot as he did for the family of the Anglophone pilot

(Edited because apparently autocorrect capitalizes Francophone, but not Anglophone 😒)

Jérôme 9h ago

@anyGould @stephanie

The flight was from Montreal with tons of francophone people on it. The pilot deceased is Quebecois. We, as francophone, are asking what is supposed to be our national airline, to have a proper message addressing the tragedy in our language. This CEO is an embarrassment and sadly represents the state of bilingualism in our country

Renata 🇨🇦🐈9h ago

@jerome @anyGould @stephanie I'm not Francophone and I agree with your sentiment. It's a shame he can't do the statement in both languages and respect the primary language of the pilot.

Stéphanie 9h ago

@renata @jerome @anyGould The pilot was from Coteau-du-Lac. 90% of the population of this little town is francophone.

@stephanie @renata @jerome @anyGould Oh wow. I grew up around there.

@anyGould @stephanie Qu'en parle toi?

Je n'ai lu qu'un seule article et il avait un screenshot d'un video avec des soustitres. C'est pas un appelle, ca.

anyGould 8h ago

@driusan @stephanie Ne sommes-nous pas en train de former les dirigeants à se contenter de diffuser le message de relations publiques ennuyeux (comme ils l'ont fait ici https://www.aircanada.com/medias/mise-%C3%A0-jour1-aircanada-fournit-des-renseignements-suppl%C3%A9mentaires-sur-le-volac8646-daircanada-express/) et à éviter de faire un message personnel et de risquer de mal s'exprimer ?

Mise à jour 1 : Air Canada fournit des renseignements supplémentaires sur le vol AC8646 d’Air Canada Express

MONTRÉAL, 24 mars 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Air Canada fournit la mise à jour suivante concernant l’accident impliquant un CRJ900 Mitsubishi d’Air Canada Express lors de son atterrissage à l’aéroport LaGuardia de New York le 22 mars 2026 vers 23 h 30.Le vol AC8646, exploité par Jazz Aviation S.E.C. (Jazz), transporteur exploitant d’A...

Mise à jour 1 : Air Canada fournit des renseignements supplémentaires sur le vol AC8646 d’Air Canada Express

@anyGould C'est pas un spectacle qu'on parle. C'est des condoleances. C'est l'essayer a damage control par le PDG.

Je suis en accord que c'est ridicule qu'on parle des langues a un tel moment et non bien les morts, mais si tu parle avec une francophone qui est tanne comme @stephanie et tu habite pas au Quebec s'il vous plait juste ferme ta guelle, c'est pas toi qui a besoin de vivre avec les effets des politiques linguistic ici au quotidien.

Bowreality 🇨🇦🍁7h ago

@anyGould @stephanie They do it all the time. You need to watch more speeches I think. Carneys social media posts are also always in both languages, either back to back or in the same posts. Videos get posted twice as well with different subtitles each time.

Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️‍🌈4h ago

@anyGould @stephanie sure we do. You’re just not aware of it.

@anyGould @stephanie the CEO not being able to speak French when the situation demands it sends a message to the people in the organization and to the francophone community that Air Canada does not value the French language or francophone communities.

This is unacceptable from someone in this position in a federally regulated industry. He should step aside and let someone actually qualified take over the role.

Stéphanie 8h ago

@Dunstable I read some messages from Air Canada employees and they really don't like him. Even those who are barely paid above minimum wage get repeatedly told how important it is for them to be bilingual

@stephanie leaders lead, both through their action and their inaction. Before this tragedy I wouldn't have imagined the head of Air Canada not being able to speak the official languages of Canada. It should be a basic requirement.

Stéphanie 7h ago

@Dunstable He was even in the news 5 years (5!) ago saying that he didn't need French - while doing a speech in Montréal lol what a guy

Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️‍🌈4h ago

@Dunstable @anyGould @stephanie especially for someone who got the positing, which lists bilingualism among its requirements, without actually being bilingual but promising to learn French, which, three years later, he still hasn’t done or else he’d have been able to say even the most basic sentence during that whole video

Translator @ TRADCO 9h ago

@stephanie Makes you wonder, why did the team allow him to do this? But honestly, did the team even have a choice? How much of this #PRFail is linked to how decisions are made? So many questions.

@stephanie meanwhile on every flight in Canada, there must be at least one attendant that speaks French, (and at least one English) not that language and service is a priority with Air Canada... its profit and shareholders?

But the CEO can't do the work expected of its employees.

Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️‍🌈4h ago

@pinhman @stephanie technically yes, but I’ve been on many flights to and from Montreal where not a single steward could understand me requesting something like a bag of chips

Stéphanie 4h ago

@bougiewonderland @pinhman oh interesting. But then I always speak English during flights, so I might not have noticed. Especially Air Canada because they have the security videos prerecorded

Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️‍🌈4h ago

@stephanie @pinhman I always speak French on principle. I don’t want to give them any reason to say “well, we don’t need anyone to speak French anymore because everyone speak in English anyway”!

@bougiewonderland I regret to inform you that you posted this in English.

Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️‍🌈3h ago

@driusan oh noes! 😱

@bougiewonderland @stephanie Doesn’t mean you’ll be served by the French speaking attendant. Perhaps the standard is to provide official language in emergency situations.

Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️‍🌈4h ago

@pinhman @stephanie of course, but “un sac de chips” is not a complicated phrase, being so close to English, and it’s hardly an unusual one in their job, so even someone with no knowledge should be able to figure it out without the customer being the one having to adapt. Heck, they could even ask for help from another attendant if they feel so confused by that request!

Ruth / Anarchae 5h ago

@stephanie I just called the Running Room customer service line and the CEO read the menu options and did a serviceable "Pour le service en français appuyez sur le 1." so perhaps he can take over Air Canada.

Celeste Ryder 🐾 🐀🏳️‍🌈4h ago

@stephanie Air Canada’s CEO proudly claimed he’s been able to live in Montreal with 20 years without needing to speak a word of French