(Ottawa) The big bosses of Air Canada, Canadian National (CN), Crown corporations and other organizations subject to the Official Languages Act such as port and airport authorities will not be required to speak and clearly understand French, as required by the Government of Quebec.
The elected Liberals and Conservatives who sit on the Standing Committee on Official Languages rejected Tuesday the amendment tabled by the Bloc Québécois to Bill C-13. The New Democratic Party is the only other political formation that declared itself in favour.
Such an amendment aims to avoid “things like we see, for example, CN, which had no French-speaking administrator,” indicated the Bloc Québécois spokesperson for official languages, Mario Beaulieu.
The fact that the senior executives of Air Canada and CN – two companies based in Montreal – are unable to speak French is “scandalous” and demonstrates that “they have no interest in respecting their social contract with us”, has said NDP MP Niki Ashton.
“The CEOs of these companies are the CEOs because the government privatized these companies,” she added. One of the few remaining obligations is that of the Official Languages Act. »
The Liberals did not comment directly on the amendment, preferring to ask questions of the experts invited by the committee.
“Would that mean that, for example, the port authority in Port Alberni or Nanaimo or Halifax, or the authorities that govern airports like, for example, in Calgary or Vancouver […] all of these CEOs will have to be bilingual,” asked the MP for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount, Marc Garneau, who was answered in the affirmative.
If the amendment is adopted and C-13 becomes law, this provision provides “an obligation that would limit” the choices of directors of private companies, also said the assistant deputy minister at the Department of Canadian Heritage, Julie Boyer, in response to a question from the Liberal MP for Saint-Léonard–Saint-Michel, Patricia Lattanzio.
The Conservative spokesperson for official languages, Joël Godin, also spoke out against this amendment despite the numerous examples where “French has been flouted in certain companies, including Air Canada”.
Mr. Godin, however, judged that the amendment is “too general” and that it risks “limiting unilingual people to not having access to these administrator positions”. He said he prefers to “develop a bilingual culture”.
CN faced a linguistic storm last year when it was revealed that it had not retained any French-speaking candidates for its board of directors after the resignation of former Quebec premier Jean Charest. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even said he was “blown away” by the situation.
CN subsequently said it intended to recruit a French-speaking administrator. Finally, last fall, Michel Letellier was appointed as the new French-speaking administrator on the board of directors.
Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau also sparked an outcry after a speech he delivered mostly in English in Montreal. He was also happy to have been able to work and live in Quebec for years without having to learn French.
The big boss of Air Canada had apologized and said in a press release that he had not wanted “in any way to disrespect Quebeckers and Francophones across the country”. He also pledged to improve his French.