After having held a first meeting without any French speakers around the table, the board of directors of Canadian National (CN) says it has kicked off the process aimed at correcting the situation, a process which should be concluded in the “next month “.
Posted at 2:17 p.m.
The person selected will be fluent in French and will be established in Quebec, assured the largest railway in the country, in a press release on Tuesday. Subject to the Official Languages Act, the Canadian National Railway Company is established in Montreal.
With President and CEO Tracy Robinson – who is taking lessons to master the language of Molière – the province will be represented by two administrators on the board of directors, as has been the case in recent years.
“We intend to appoint this person in the coming months,” said the chairman of the board of directors of the largest railway in the country, Robert Pace, without giving further details.
Last week, The Press revealed that the company had closed the doors of its board of directors to French speakers. CN had tried to justify itself by explaining that it had been taken aback by the resignation of former Quebec Premier Jean Charest – the only French-speaking administrator – to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.
At the same time as this controversy, company employees denounced several linguistic incidents that occurred at the Taschereau marshalling yard with the arrival of unilingual English-speaking employees in the city.
For the past two years, the Teamsters Union, which represents locomotive engineers, conductors and yardmasters, has been sounding the alarm to CN’s senior management. The union also arrested Mr.me Robinson in early April in a letter that The Press was able to consult.
CN announced its colors ahead of the release of first quarter results.