'That was a mistake' , said Air Canada CEO , while getting criticized by Canadian MPs , for not learning French before accepting the job !

In November 2021 , Canadian Deputy Prime Minister 'Chrystia Freeland'  sent a letter to  Air Canada’s chairman , Vagn Soerensen , asking the airline board to consider adding bilingualism as an obligatory competence when choosing future CEOs.

That was a reaction to an almost entirely  'English Speech'  by  Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau at the Montreal Chamber of Commerce on 3rd November 21. Later, he was unable to answer a reporter’s question posed in French : “How does one live in Montreal for more than 14 years speaking very approximative French ?”

This created an uproar , when he tried to reason out his 'weak french' , by saying  "look at my work schedule" , which implied that he simply does not have the time to attend language classes.

Mr. Rousseau had apologized later by saying , he planned to improve his language skills ,

 “I would like to be able to speak French. I want to make it clear that in no way did I mean to show disrespect for Quebecers and francophones across the country.” 

That wasn't over yet , On 21st  March 22 , he apologized again and said , French is a "priority" for the Montreal-based airline and pledged to "do better.

In this occasion, the Air Canada Chief Michael Rousseau spoke in broken French during the video conference testimony before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages ,

"I'm sorry. I apologize again here,"  "I admit I made a mistake in not learning to speak French when I joined Air Canada and I am correcting that mistake at this point."

While answering Bloc vice-chair Mario Beaulieu , who was interested in his progress in learning French , Rousseau said he takes lessons every morning from tutors at reputable firms.

"And they give me assignments ... that I complete for the next day or the next session," he said. "The routine is (lessons) every morning and homework almost every night."

 The airline, which is subject to the Official Languages Act, understands its obligation to communicate with its customers in the official language of their choice , added the Air Canada Chief.

Asked by Liberal MP Arielle Kayabaga what he had learned from the controversy, Rousseau said,

“What I learned is that to participate fully in Quebec society, I needed to learn French and I should have started that earlier in my career at Air Canada. That was a mistake on my part. I’m correcting that at this point in time with relatively intensive lessons.”

Rousseau said his company has made significant improvements since Fraser’s 2016 report and implemented three new measures to promote the use of French within the three last weeks.

He also added that the company provided over 130,000 training hours to over 10,000 employees to learn how to speak French since 2015.

But that answer did not impress Conservative MP Jacques Gourde, who calculated that came down to an average of 13 hours of French courses per interested employee over the last seven years.

Even after privatization in 1988 , Air Canada remains subject to the Official Languages Act, meaning it is obliged by law to serve customers in French and English, at their request.