Parlez-Vous Français? Air Canada Boss Says 'Non' and Gets an Earful

Parlez-Vous Français? Air Canada Boss Says 'Non' and Gets an Earful

Quebec's language rules have business leaders brushing up on their skills; 'It's an affront'

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On a cool, wet Saturday afternoon in the outskirts of Montreal, near the city's main airport, a crowd of about 100 gathered in front of Air Canada's headquarters demanding the resignation of the airline's chief executive.

It had nothing to do with a lackluster stock performance at Canada's largest airline. Protesters were mad that the CEO, who has lived in Montreal for roughly 14 years, can't speak French.

"It's an affront to Quebec,'' said Marie-Anne Alepin, a protest organizer and president of the francophone-advocacy group, Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal, "because the official language is French."

The chief executive, Michael Rousseau, took over the top job this year.

"I have been able to live in Montreal without speaking French, and I think that's a testament to the city of Montreal," Mr. Rousseau told reporters on Nov. 3 after a speech he delivered in English to a mostly French-speaking crowd. "I would love to be able to speak French."

However, he said his work schedule -- which includes steering Air Canada through the pandemic -- hasn't allowed for time.

The comments reignited a linguistic firestorm, and the growing complexities of doing business in bilingual Canada and French-speaking Quebec.

Tension over English and French usage in Quebec is longstanding, but this time the complaints target some of the top business leaders in the province.

"The Air Canada case has brought considerable heat on CEOs across Montreal," the province's largest city, said Karl Moore, a professor at the faculty of management at Montreal's McGill University.

The French and English have lived together in Quebec dating back to the 18th century, although tensions persisted because of the influence the smaller English community had in the francophone region.

Quebec's government declared French as the official language of the government, courts, education and business in the mid-1970s.

At the time, the separatist Quebec government said the province was a French enclave in North America, and language policy needed to reflect that and ensure French culture could exist and prosper.

Before the mid-1970s, the senior executive ranks at major Montreal-based companies tended to be predominantly English-speaking.

The share of Quebec residents whose primary language is English has declined sharply since the 1970s. The bulk of those who remain -- about 80% -- live in Montreal. The latest census had 718,000 people in Quebec identifying English as their language learned at birth, out of a province of more than 8 million.

Quebec is now toughening language laws, which, for instance, limit the use of English on outdoor signs.

In 2013, officials with the Quebec government's language watchdog asked an Italian restaurant to redo its menu so words such as "pasta" and "bottiglia" were spelled out in French (pâtes and bouteille).

The watchdog later backtracked.

In 2019, the Federal Court of Canada ordered Air Canada to pay a French-speaking couple roughly $17,000 in damages after they complained that on the planes, the French words "sortie" and "avis" were written in smaller characters relative to "exit" and "warning," and that only the English word "lift" was engraved on seat belts.

Ms. Alepin, president of the advocacy group, said Mr. Rousseau is emblematic of the struggles Quebec French-speakers face. "I would pose the question: 'Would a unilingual francophone be accepted as CEO of Air Canada?' No."

Air Canada's chairman, Vagn Sørensen, said in a letter to the Canadian government that Mr. Rousseau has started intensive French training and his language skills would now be part of his annual evaluation.

"I want to make it clear that in no way did I mean to show disrespect for Quebecers and francophones across the country," Mr. Rousseau said in a statement on Nov. 4, the day after his speech in English. "I apologize to those who were offended by my remarks."

Meanwhile, the CEO of another Montreal company, engineering and construction firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., said he was postponing a speech to a blue-chip Montreal crowd planned for this month to ensure his remarks had enough French.

"The recent events surrounding the place given to the French language in Canadian and Quebec companies have led me to make this decision and to postpone my commitment until the coming year," CEO Ian Edwards, who hails from the United Kingdom, said in a letter to event organizers.

He said he took French classes after arriving in Quebec about seven years ago "with mixed results," but has recommitted to further language training.

Quebec's Premier, François Legault, said he would like to meet with all top-level CEOs in the province to discuss their French.

At a press conference this month he said he wants to identify corporate leaders who are unilingual and "convince them to learn French."

Mr. Legault's government is widely expected to amend the province's language laws to impose stricter limits on businesses in providing contracts, job offers and training documents in English.

The government argues changes are required to defend and protect French culture in Quebec. It has cited 2017 research from Statistics Canada, which projected the use of French among Quebec's population to decline from over 80% to 75% by 2036, whereas the use of English is set to rise to 13% from 11%.

Quebec's language watchdog, l'Office québécois de la langue française, said its own study released this year indicated nearly half of the province's French-speakers regularly use English or another language at work.

Mr. Rousseau confirmed French speakers' worst fears -- that you can live in the province, in particular cosmopolitan Montreal, without speaking the official language, said André Pratte, principal at government-relations firm Navigator and a former chief editorial writer at Montreal's La Presse newspaper.

Air Canada, a former state-owned airline that was privatized over three decades ago, is obligated under Canadian law to have its headquarters in Montreal and offer all services in both English and French.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Mr. Rousseau's lack of French "an unacceptable situation."

A spokeswoman said he declined to comment further.

Attention has turned to other non-Quebecers leading Montreal-based companies.

A spokesman for Laurentian Bank of Canada said CEO Rania Llewellyn, appointed over a year ago, is taking private French classes and "is committed to improving her French."

Canadian National Railway Co., based in Montreal, is looking for a new leader to replace its retiring CEO.

"The board of directors remains very sensitive to this reality," the company said, in a statement, in reference to language issues.

The company's current CEO, Jean-Jacques Ruest, and his two predecessors are fluent in French and English.

Before that, the company was steered by the late Hunter Harrison, an American from Memphis who resisted taking French lessons, but once opened a meeting at the railroad by saying "bonjour y'all."

Kim Mackrael contributed to this article.

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