Neil Malik
Was Air Canada’s CEO fired for not speaking French?
Was Air Canada’s CEO fired for not speaking French?
ACHPF, Shutterstock
The Topline
- Air Canada has announced that CEO Michael Rousseau will retire later this year
- The announcement comes after a week of backlash over an English-only condolence video following a plane crash that killed two pilots at New York’s LaGuardia Airport
- The Quebec legislature demanded his resignation following the video, while Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “very disappointed."
- Air Canada is required under Canada’s Official Languages Act to communicate to its customers in both official languages
Never miss another side to every story
Sign up for The Level's 5-minute newsletter, 3x per week
Thanks for subscribing!
Check your inbox for an email to confirm you're on the list. If there's no email, check your spam filter just in case, then mark us as 'not spam' so that you never miss an issue.
Switch sides,
back and forth
Rules for thee, but not for me
A highly paid CEO should earn their money. If you’re Air Canada’s CEO, that means learning how to speak French, like it or not.
Back in 2021, Rousseau delivered his first major speech as CEO to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal in English only. That didn’t go over well, generating more than 2,000 complaints to the federal government’s Commissioner of Official Languages and setting a new record.
"I admit I made a mistake in not learning to speak French when I joined Air Canada, and I am correcting that mistake at this point," he said at the time.
Fast forward to 2026, and Rousseau makes the same mistake again by not speaking French in his LaGuardia video. That generated another 2,600 complaints.
For people who live outside of Quebec, this all might sound absurd. But whether you’re Anglophone or Francophone, the language laws that apply to Air Canada are clear.
Canada’s largest national airline is subject to Canada’s Official Languages Act, requiring it to provide services and communications in both English and French.
It’s reasonable to think a baggage handler in Vancouver might not speak French, and it’s unlikely anyone would complain about that.
But the CEO is a different story. Rousseau is the face of the entire organization. By not speaking French, especially after making a promise to do just that, he sends a clear signal that bilingualism isn’t on the company’s priority list. That’s not going to fly in this country.
Air Canada is based in Montreal and markets itself as a national carrier. Bilingualism isn’t just for optics. It’s fundamental to the brand. If the CEO isn’t on board with that, he’s basically saying rules for thee, but not for me. The outrage represented by the volume of complaints proves it.
In his LaGuardia video, broken French with a bad accent would have shown more respect to the family of the deceased pilot from Quebec, while also signalling to Francophone viewers he understands the nature of his role. Effort alone would have mattered more than anything else.
Because if you’re the CEO of a highly scrutinized organization, and you make such a bad mistake that the Prime Minister calls you out on it, it’s hard to argue that it isn’t a fireable offence.
It's not about the French
Let’s be real. There is no other country in the world where a CEO’s language skills would be scrutinized to this degree.
Rousseau’s decision to “retire” was more to do with his performance – or lack of it. Look past the language barrier and check out the numbers instead.
Since Rousseau became CEO in 2021, Air Canada’s stock price is down roughly 30 per cent.
Over the same time period, United Airlines is up 63 per cent, Delta Air Lines is up 39 per cent, and the parent company of British Airways is up 75 per cent.
Its on-time performance is no better, with the company placing ninth out of 10 large North American airlines last year, according to aviation data tracker Cirium.
Running an airline isn’t easy, especially in a country as large as Canada, but those stats kind of speak for themselves.
Then there was last year’s flight attendant labour dispute, when he essentially admitted he was caught by surprise when the government chose not to force the union back to work.
That’s not exactly the best look for a highly paid CEO, when thousands of travellers were stranded around the world because of his inability to reach a deal.
So if the board was looking for an excuse to replace Rousseau with a new CEO, the French-language brouhaha was a perfect scapegoat.
The board shouldn’t require the next CEO to be bilingual either. That will reduce the supply of talented candidates for the job. That said, it’s fair to ask the new CEO to learn French over time.
Think of it this way. If the stock price was up 30 per cent over five years instead of down, Rousseau would still have a job.
