Carney says Air Canada's English-only message after LaGuardia crash 'lacks compassion' Prime Minister Mark Carney said the response from Air Canada following the LaGuardia plane collision that killed two of the airline's pilots shows "a lack of compassion", after the CEO released a condolence message in English only. Canada's official languages are English and French.
One of the pilots killed, 30-year-old Antoine Forest, is from French-speaking Quebec. "We live in a bilingual country, and companies like Air Canada particularly have a responsibility to always communicate in both official languages," Carney told reporters on Wednesday.
Air Canada's CEO, Michael Rousseau, was summoned to Ottawa to answer for his unilingual message. The BBC reached out to Air Canada for comment.
Rousseau, who has been criticised before for not speaking French, is facing calls for his resignation, most vocally from Quebec Premier François Legault. Forest and the other pilot, Mackenzie Gunther, were killed when an Air Canada plane collided with a fire truck on Sunday night at LaGuardia airport in New York shortly after landing.
The flight had come from Montreal, Quebec. Dozens of passengers were injured, and six remain in hospital, Air Canada said on Tuesday.