This is NOT what federalists in Quebec, or Liberal Party of Quebec leader Charles Milliard, needed. Just when the Liberals’ support has been steadily rising under their new leader, and the PQ’s support appears to have plateaued, Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau has handed the PQ an electoral gift on a silver platter. Indeed, it is almost impossible to overstate the importance of Rousseau’s unilingual condolence speech gaffe in Quebec.
Nor is this what the federal government, or for that matter all Canadians, needed, at a time when Trump’s existential threat requires a strong show of national unity. With the fate of the Charter of Rights, the notwithstanding clause and Quebec’s Bill 21 now front and centre as the Supreme Court held hearings all week, Quebecers – who overwhelmingly support the bill — are already on high alert to any threat to their cultural identity. And nothing says ‘culture’ more than language. As Rene Levesque wrote in the opening sentences of his magnum opus, Option Quebec, “We are Quebecers. That means first and foremost that we speak French.” (translation)
Even more infuriating is the fact that this whole disaster was all so unnecessary. If the man is completely incapable of reading a short prepared text in French, after an alleged 300 hours of French language training, could he not have asked one of his francophone Executive Vice Presidents to accompany him and do so? Preferably before Rousseau spoke in English? (According to their own website there are six VPs, and at least two of them appear to be francophones. If not, there is yet another serious problem brewing….)
As one commentator and public relations expert has so cogently put it, this is not just a matter of linguistic incompetence, it is a blindingly obvious demonstration of a complete lack of respect – for Quebecers, for the Official Languages Act, for the mandate of Air Canada, and for the company’s customers and employees. [i]
Readers of the Globe and Mail may have been lulled into a false sense of reassurance by an article by Andrew Miller, who valiantly attempted to make the case that the whole thing is overblown and completely unreasonable and Rousseau is actually a victim.[ii] Why? Because Air Canada is now a private corporation that is unfairly being held to governmental standards on official languages. To justify this argument, Miller uses the example of the president of the Toronto Dominion Bank, who apologized in Toronto, in English only, for his bank’s money laundering fiasco last year, and no one criticized it for being unilingual.
What is wrong with this comparison? First, Miller’s example took place in Toronto, not Montreal. Second, the TD is headquartered in Toronto, not Montreal, where Air Canada’s headquarters are located. Third, if TD’s president had been giving this apology in Montreal, he would have absolutely been expected to deliver it in French, or bilingually. It would be a political and cultural expectation, but Quebec has language legislation too, in case Miller does not know it, and it covers the private sector, so there is a legal requirement as well.
The argument that Air Canada is now a private corporation is spurious for another significant reason. It was set up with numerous guidelines and benchmarks quite deliberately, and these were the conditions under which it was allowed to go private. They are right there in its corporate mandate. The CEO is ignoring them. For that matter, so is the Board. They opted to keep Rousseau after his last brush with linguistic infamy three years ago, and look where this has ended up. If Miller wants to support Rousseau, he will have to call for changes to Air Canada’s charter.
In the meantime, there is no surprise that Quebec’s National Assembly has all but unanimously called for Rousseau’s resignation. It will be no surprise if the Board of Air Canada chooses to ignore that motion. But one would hope that Rousseau himself would do the honourable thing and resign.
[i] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/air-canada-ceo-french-controversy-collision-9.7144663
[ii] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-air-canada-crash-ceo-rousseau-french-bilingual/
