Carney says Air Canada CEO’s English-only condolences lacked compassion

OTTAWA – Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau was slammed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Quebec’s government on Wednesday for delivering an English-only message of condolence after Sunday’s deadly plane crash in New York.

Rousseau is being summoned to testify at the House of Commons official languages committee after he shared a four-minute condolence video online that only included two French words — “bonjour” and “merci.”

The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages reported receiving 84 complaints about Rousseau’s video as of Tuesday afternoon.

Carney, speaking to reporters before the weekly Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa, said the decision to release the video message only in English showed a “lack of judgment 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 said. 

“I’m very disappointed in, as others are, rightly so, in this unilingual message of the CEO of Air Canada. It doesn’t matter the circumstances, but particularly in these circumstances.”

The flight was carrying passengers from Montreal to LaGuardia airport, and many of the travellers and crew — including Antoine Forest, one of the two pilots killed — were French-speaking Canadians.

Forest and fellow pilot Mackenzie Gunther died when the Air Canada Jazz flight they were landing at LaGuardia collided with a fire truck on the runway Sunday evening.

Quebec Premier François Legault pointed out that Rousseau had committed to learning French in 2021 and called for him to resign.

“If he still doesn’t speak French today, it’s disrespectful to his employees and to his francophone customers. So yes, I think that if he doesn’t speak French, he should resign,” Legault said ahead of question period at the national assembly.

Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette described Rousseau as a “repeat offender,” saying he has a history of disrespect for French as an official language. He also called on Air Canada to force him to resign.

An Air Canada spokesperson said Rousseau wanted to speak in person and to do so before going to the crash site.

“Despite his efforts, his ability to speak French does not allow him to communicate such a sensitive message in that language as he would like. We therefore used subtitles to allow everyone to receive his message directly,” Christophe Hennebelle said in French in an email.

This isn’t the first time Rousseau has landed in trouble over his grasp of French. After he delivered a speech to a business crowd in Montreal in late 2021 that was almost entirely in English, he offended many by pointing out that he’d lived in the city for 14 years without having to speak its majority language.

Conservative MP Joel Godin, the party’s official languages critic, pointed out Wednesday that Air Canada must respect the official languages (law).”

Carney said Canadian officials continue to work in close collaboration with their American counterparts to determine how this crash happened.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 25, 2025.

— With files from Michel Saba in Ottawa and Patrice Bergeron in Quebec City