About a hundred people braved the rain on Saturday afternoon to protest noisily in front of Air Canada’s head office, in the Saint-Laurent borough, to demand the resignation of the company’s president and CEO, Michael. Rousseau.
“You should not be afraid to get wet to defend the French”, joked to the To have to the general president of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal, Marie-Anne Alepin, at the end of this event, for which her organization ensured the organization. “What we are asking is to respect ourselves,” she adds of Air Canada.
The poor command of the language of Molière by the head of the largest airline in the country continues to make many unhappy, since Mr. Rousseau delivered a speech almost entirely in English to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, at the beginning of the month.
“It’s unacceptable situations like that. It must stop, ”hammered in an interview with the member for Quebec solidaire Alexandre Leduc. The elected Montrealer believes that Mr. Rousseau has become in recent weeks a “symbol of this ancient caste of English-speaking leaders” who still do not master French.
An umbrella in hand, a Quebec flag or a sign in the other, the demonstrators attended a series of speeches from elected officials including the Bloc Québécois and Québec solidaire, but also defense activists. of the French language. In turn, they demanded – in addition to the independence of Quebec – that Michael Rousseau be forced to resign, at least until he had finished learning to master French, as he is committed to doing so.
“The board has to do the right thing. Yes, French lessons are good, but you can’t learn a language by snapping your fingers. It should perhaps take a while, have an interim in the head the time to do what is necessary ”, argues Ms. Alepin. She also hopes that Bill 96 on the protection of the French language, when it comes into force, will be applied assiduously to companies and companies under federal authority, such as Air Canada.
Further details will follow.