{"id":555423,"date":"2026-03-31T03:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/555423\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:33:08","slug":"air-canada-ceo-will-retire-this-year-after-english-only-crash-message-criticized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/555423\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Canada CEO will retire this year after English-only crash message criticized"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">TORONTO &#8212; Air Canada announced Monday its CEO will retire later this year, after <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/air-canada-ceo-french-crash-carney-laguardia-944ea1e6a7a6c3ee0ce47b6a1b816f86\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Rousseau <\/a> was criticized for his English-only message of condolence following <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/new-york-laguardia-airport-air-canada-collision-6a3cbabbeed76125fa5f7aed32679fd8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">this month\u2019s deadly crash<\/a> in New York.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Canada\u2019s largest airline, based in French-speaking Quebec, said Rousseau told the board he will leave by the end of the third quarter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Canada is an officially bilingual nation, and Prime Minister Mark Carney had said the English-only message showed a lack of compassion and judgment. Quebec\u2019s premier and others called on the airline executive to resign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Antoine Forest, one of the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/pilots-identified-crash-laguardia-mackenzie-gunther-antoine-forrest-c5238ddbe5b0ba6ccedfa967ac62efc0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">two pilots killed<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Canada\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Steven MacKinnon, Canada\u2019s transport minister, thanked Rousseau in a social media post and said the government will continue to work closely with Air Canada to ensure it &#8220;provides safe, reliable, affordable, and bilingual service to all Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault noted that when Rousseau was appointed president of the airline in February 2021, he promised to learn French.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Quebec\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO &#8212; Air Canada announced Monday its CEO will retire later this year, after Michael Rousseau was criticized&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[246787,1686,9178,966,28,6659,793,7046,111,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-555423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-246787","9":"tag-accidents","10":"tag-aerospace-and-defense-industry","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-fires","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-language","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}