The condolence video was released after an Air Canada plane collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia airport in New York shortly after landing, killing Forest and another pilot, Mackenzie Gunther.
Rousseau expressed “deepest sorrow for everyone affected” in the video, which was posted on X and included both English and French subtitles.
He was quickly criticised afterwards for failing to speak French in it and was summoned to Ottawa by Canada’s parliamentary committee on Official Languages to “explain himself” before MPs.
Rousseau later apologised in a written statement released in both English and French, saying he was deeply saddened his inability to speak French “diverted attention” from the pilots’ grieving families and Air Canada staff.
He added that his French remained weak “despite many lessons over the years”.
“I sincerely apologise for this, but I am continuing my efforts to improve,” he said.
Rousseau, who lives in Montreal but is an anglophone, had come under fire for his French language skills in the past, including shortly after he was appointed as CEO of Air Canada in 2021.
At the time, Rousseau apologised and committed to improving his French.
Air Canada began as a federal public corporation and has been private since 1988. It is subject to Canada’s Official Languages Act, however, and announcements on board planes are made in both English and French.