(March 30): Air Canada chief executive officer Michael Rousseau announced he’s leaving after creating a public relations fiasco with an English-language video about the deadly runway collision at LaGuardia Airport in New York.
Rousseau, 68, will retire by the end of the third quarter, Air Canada said in a statement on Monday morning.
An Air Canada Express jet flew from Montreal to New York on March 22 and, after landing, collided with an airport fire truck, killing both pilots. Rousseau made a video statement in which he expressed his “deepest sorrow for everyone affected”. But the only words he spoke in French were “bonjour” at the beginning and “merci” at the end. French subtitles were provided.
That caused a furore in Quebec, where the provincial legislature, known as the National Assembly, voted 92 to zero in favour of a motion calling for Rousseau’s resignation. Many French-speaking Canadians pointed out that one of the two pilots killed in the crash, Antoine Forest, was from Quebec.
Canada’s largest airline is required to provide services in English and French, the country’s two official languages. It’s also headquartered in the Montreal region, the business and financial centre of Quebec, the only Canadian province where French is the majority language.
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney lambasted Rousseau last week, saying the video showed a “lack of judgement and lack of compassion”.
“We proudly live in a bilingual country and companies like Air Canada particularly have a responsibility to always communicate in both official languages, regardless of the situation,” Carney told reporters.
Rousseau apologised, saying he was “deeply saddened” that “his inability to speak French has diverted attention from the profound grief of the families and the great resilience of Air Canada’s employees”.
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Air Canada said the board has been working on succession planning for more than two years, and that in January it started an external global search. “The Board will consider a number of performance criteria in assessing candidates including the ability to communicate in French,” the airline said.
Rousseau was paid C$13.1 million last year, according to the company’s latest regulatory filing.
In 2021, shortly after being appointed CEO, Rousseau gave a speech to Montreal business leaders almost entirely in English. After the event, he expressed some pride in being able to live in Montreal for more than a decade without speaking French, sparking outrage in Quebec. He apologised that time, too.
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