Official languages commissioner rebukes Air Canada CEO over English-only message

OTTAWA – The Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada is rebuking Air Canada’s outgoing CEO for a condolence message he delivered almost entirely in English after a deadly plane crash in New York earlier this year.

The commissioner’s annual report says the office received a large number of complaints after Michael Rousseau posted a four-minute video that only included two French words — “bonjour” and “merci.”

“The intensity of the reactions and the high volume of complaints received in response to this video show that both of our official languages genuinely matter to the Canadian public and that we must continue to protect them,” Kelly Burke told reporters in Ottawa, adding that the complaints are still under investigation. 

“This situation illustrates that bilingualism is an essential skill for any leader, whether in politics, federal public service, or even in the private sector.”

Rousseau’s video message came after an Air Canada regional jet that took off in Montreal, collided with a fire truck crossing the runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York on March 22, killing two pilots and sending more than 40 people to hospital. 

Quebecer Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther, from Ontario, were the two pilots killed in the collision.

Burke’s report says it’s important for Canadians to hear and see their leaders speaking equally in both official languages in times of crisis, “and not solely through an interpreter or subtitles.”

Seven days after Air Canada posted Rousseau’s video, the company’s board of directors announced that he would retire by the end of the third quarter of 2026 and that it was considering a number of criteria for his successor, including the ability to communicate in French.

The commissioner’s office said in an email that it received 2,425 complaints on the video, including 98 that arrived after the end of the current financial year on March 31.

Burke’s 31-page report also touched on a number of other issues, including concern over how federal budget cuts could impact the government’s language obligations and minority language communities.

“In the past, spending on official languages-related activities has often been targeted during periods of fiscal restraint,” the report read. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to cut the size of the public service, relying mainly on attrition. 

Burke said it’s still too soon to measure the impacts of the 2025 federal budget, which laid out a plan to save tens of billions of dollars over five years in budget cuts and government efficiency measures.

“We’re watching the government’s actions closely on this subject, and we’re waiting to see how the cutbacks will actually play out within the administration, so we can then assess how the government has addressed the concerns we raised at the beginning,” Burke said. 

The report also cited what it saw as positive developments, including $150 million in funding announced for CBC/Radio-Canada in the 2025—2026 fiscal year and a Supreme Court decision in June that ruled that New Brunswick’s lieutenant-governor must be bilingual.

This decision “represents a step forward for the province’s language rights and a major victory for official language minority communities,” the report read.

The report also dedicated several pages to the issued raised by the use of artificial intelligence.

It noted that AI has potential to be used as a tool for translation and interpretation, as well as promoting bilingualism and language learning.

But Burke noted that AI is prone to errors, and has a “language bias” towards English due to the predominance of English-language “content and perspectives” on the internet.

The commissioner recommended that the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat incorporate official languages to its artificial intelligence strategy and other documents by March 2027, “so that they are systematically taken into account during the development, implementation and use of any tools, training, programs, policies or guidelines aimed at deploying artificial intelligence across the public service.” 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2026.

— By Morgan Lowrie in Montreal