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The CEO of Air Canada airlines announced his resignation after getting backlash over an English-only statement about the death of two pilots in a U.S. crash.
Michael Rousseau, 68, told the board of the company that he would leave by the end of the third quarter, according to the announcement Monday.
‘The Air Canada board of directors will have to ensure that the next CEO speaks French.’
Two pilots were killed when their Air Canada plane with 72 passengers collided with a fire truck on the runway at LaGuardia Airport. Dozens were also injured in the March 22 incident.
Rousseau released a statement offering his condolences about the accident but was immediately criticized because it was in English but not in French. Canada is officially a dual-language country, and Air Canada is based in a French-majority province.
The issue was so contentious that even Prime Minister Mark Carney weighed in to call the resignation “appropriate.”
He added, “It is essential that the next CEO of Air Canada is bilingual.”
Quebec Premier François Legault agreed.
“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,” Legault said.
Legault also pointed out that Rousseau had promised to learn French when he was elevated to the CEO position in 2021.
The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages said it received hundreds of complaints about Rousseau’s statement.
On Tuesday, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said on Fox News that the investigation into the crash was ongoing but that she believed there were “multiple failures” that led to the lethal accident.
“We have found in all of our investigations that it is not a single error that led to a terrible tragedy. … So we’re going to look very comprehensively,” she said.
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