MPs Summon Air Canada CEO Over English-Only Condolence Message Following Plane Crash

Aircraft maintenance workers position a front loader under debris hanging from the wreckage of an Air Canada Express jet, March 24, 2026, just off the runway where it had collided with a Port Authority fire truck on March 23 at LaGuardia Airport in New York. AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura

Air Canada’s CEO has been summoned to Ottawa to answer questions from MPs on why he issued condolences only in English to the families of two pilots killed in a plane collision at a New York airport this week, one of whom was from Quebec.

A motion tabled in the House of Commons and adopted nearly unanimously by MPs said CEO Michael Rousseau will need to appear at the House of Commons official languages committee to “explain himself” before May 1. The motion said Rousseau’s statement was “incompatible with the obligations set out in the Official Languages Act and the expectations of the Canadian public.”

In his video statement released on March 23, Rousseau  said it was a “very somber day at Air Canada,” and the airline expressed its “deepest sorrow for everyone affected.” The video was delivered in English except for the French words “bonjour” at the start of the video and “merci” at the end.

Two pilots were killed on March 22 after a plane operated by Air Canada Express carrier Jazz Aviation collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. One of the pilots, Antoine Forest, was originally from the Coteau-du-Lac in Quebec, while the other pilot, Mackenzie Gunther, was a graduate of Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto.

The plane was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members. More than 40 passengers were injured in the collision, as well as crew members.

Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters in Parliament on March 25 that he was “extremely disappointed by the message” released by Rousseau, which he said showed “a lack of compassion.” Carney said given that Canada is a bilingual country, Air Canada has a “special responsibility to communicate, whatever the situation, in both official languages.”

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon also told reporters it was unacceptable for Rousseau to not deliver the message in French and that Air Canada has a legal obligation to communicate in both English and French.

In March 2022, Rousseau had apologized before the official languages committee for his comments a month prior where he said he lived in Montreal for 14 years without learning to speak French. “I admit that I made a mistake by not learning to speak French when I joined Air Canada and I am correcting that mistake at this point,” he said.

The same committee decided during its review of the Official Languages Act in 2023 not to require the CEO of Air Canada to speak and understand French, as the Quebec government had called for.