TORONTO (AP) — Air Canada announced Monday that its CEO will retire later this year, after Michael Rousseau was criticized for his English-only message of condolence following this month’s deadly crash in New York.
Canada’s largest airline, based in French-speaking Quebec, said that Rousseau, 68, told the board he will leave by the end of the third quarter.
Canada is an officially bilingual nation, and Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Rousseau’s decision to retire is “appropriate.”
“It is essential that the next CEO of Air Canada is bilingual,” Carney said.
Carney had said the English-only message showed a lack of compassion and judgment. Quebec’s premier and others called on the airline executive to resign.
”I salute the decision of Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau to step down from his position. The Air Canada board of directors will have to ensure that the next CEO speaks French,” Quebec Premier François Legault said in a statement.
Antoine Forest, one of the two pilots killed in the crash at LaGuardia Airport, was a French-speaking Quebecer. Forest and Mackenzie Gunther died when the Air Canada Jazz flight from Montreal collided with a fire truck on the runway shortly after landing.
Canada’s largest airline is headquartered in Montreal. Rousseau previously had been criticized for not speaking French. He delivered his condolence video message in English, with French subtitles. The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages has received hundreds of complaints about it.
Steven MacKinnon, Canada’s transport minister, thanked Rousseau in a social media post and said that the government will continue to work closely with Air Canada to ensure that it “provides safe, reliable, affordable, and bilingual service to all Canadians.”
Legault noted that when Rousseau was appointed president of the airline in February 2021, he promised to learn French.
Quebec’s identity has been contentious since the 1760s, when the British completed their takeover of what was then called New France. Quebec is about 80% French-speaking.
“Language is a highly political issue in Canada and the Air Canada leadership has been aware of that for a very long time,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
“The fact that Rousseau had promised to learn French back in 2021 but failed to deliver amidst his sky-high level of compensation did not help him in the court of public opinion.”
Jason Kenney, a former Conservative Cabinet minister, has said that he would rather the CEO of Canada’s flagship carrier focus his scarce time on safety and reliability than language training.