Overview
- Air Canada’s board announced Monday that Michael Rousseau will retire by the end of September after backlash to a condolence note written almost entirely in English following a March 22 LaGuardia collision that killed two pilots on a Jazz Aviation flight it operates.
- Rousseau apologized last week and said he still cannot express himself adequately in French despite years of lessons, while pledging to keep working at it.
- Political pressure intensified as Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was very disappointed and Quebec’s National Assembly passed a motion urging Rousseau to step down.
- Directors said they have been running a two-year succession process, expanded the search to external candidates in January, and will factor the ability to communicate in French into evaluations.
- The shift underscores Canada’s bilingual norms and the expectation that leaders at Montreal-based institutions speak French, a standard shaped by federal language law and Quebec’s cultural politics.