Can you redo that in English?
Air Canada boss Michael Rousseau is even worse than people thought.
He spent 14 years in Montreal. He runs a carrier subject to the Official Languages Act. But in front of the media, he was not able to say a little sentence like “Sorry, I don’t speak French”. Not even the classic: Sorry I do not speak French.
French, he doesn’t give a damn.
At least Mr. Rousseau is in the right place. He respects Air Canada’s usual policy: indifference to French, and contempt for those who want to protect him.
In an interview with my colleague Jean-Philippe Décarie, he said that his mother and his wife are French-speaking. He says he doesn’t have enough time to learn their language.
I don’t want to interfere with his private life. But at the very least, he shows tenacity … It takes some to become so immune to French, to never let himself be contaminated by the local TV or radio, not to address his employees in their language, to cover their ears when people speak this suspicious dialect.
I know travelers who memorize a polite phrase when they stay abroad. For example : Mi dispiace non parlo italiano Where Entschuldigung, ich spreche kein Deutsch.
Mr. Rousseau must not have had time to tame the Google Translate function. Perhaps he was too busy counting his millions in bonuses, indecently pocketed as he begged for public funds while refusing to reimburse his clients and laying off his employees (the Trudeau government ended up demanding the reimbursement of flights and rewards).
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Michael Rousseau was invited by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM). For several days, it was known that his speech would be in English. The president of the CCMM admitted his discomfort.
In defense of the boss of Air Canada, he continues a rich tradition.
In 1976, the Commissioner of Official Languages wrote: “After seven years and some 371 complaints and 232 recommendations, we are no longer quite sure what to propose as improvements. ”
Nothing has changed since. Following the privatization, each commissioner initiated legal proceedings against the carrier.
Complaints are still pouring in. How can we believe that the boss, who doesn’t even try to pretend to speak French, will be interested in it?
Air Canada has already challenged the powers of the commissioner. She also criticizes clients who want to have their rights respected. Complainants are accused with cover of intolerance because they ask to be served in their language.
Air Canada also lacks deductibles. Last year the company told the Journal of Montreal that his boss “speaks functional French that he strives to continually improve”. It was wrong. Mr. Rousseau was not even able to read a small statement in French for the media. And this, even if he saw the controversy coming for several days.
He contented himself with reading a few words prepared in advance for the gratin of business.
Air Canada is used to these linguistic storms. These picturesque francophones complain, then a few hours pass and everything is forgotten, it is business as usual. And the sanctions? Nothing to scare. They are rare and not very salty.
As long as shareholders are making money, everything is rolling. How to complain with full pockets?
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The worst part of Mr. Rousseau’s response is his compliment to Montrealers.
According to him, it is to the credit of the metropolis to have allowed him to live there for more than a decade without speaking the official language (“ It’s a testament to the city of Montreal ”).
He is delighted that we can live only in English in the metropolis. And he suggests that the real opening is to fade away. It is no longer even bilingualism, where Montrealers switch from one language to another. It’s a crush.
English-speaking Montrealers are proposing a bilingual city project. I hope they will recall that this has nothing to do with linguistic mixing. M. Rousseau marks more a return to a sad past where two languages lived in parallel, in separate universes, and that one counted more than the other.
The legendary unilingual English-speaking cashier of the Eaton no longer exists, but her bosshe is doing well.
At Air Canada, the policy remains the same. French ? Yes sir, no problem!