Friday, November 5, 2021

Air Canada Boss Enrages Quebec....Too Bad

Air Canada Boss... Let them Eat Cake!!!
I don't know if it is sad or funny to hear the Quebec political class and its lackey media tout the sudden importance of bilingualism, the hypocrisy boggles the mind.

All this outrage over the unilingual boss of Air Canada giving a speech in English and admitting that although he lives and works in Montreal and is married to a francophone, he cannot speak French.

“I’ve been able to live in Montreal without speaking French, and I think that’s a testament to the city of Montreal,” Michael Rousseau said after making a major speech to the city's business community.  Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau 

Oh my....

The shrill and hysterical outrage is comical because it showcases a reality that language militants pretend isn't there.
Air Canada and just about every single big corporation in Canada operate in English. Period.
The need for a bilingual CEO is an unneeded handicap and limits the pool of potential candidates by at least 95%.
Quebec politicians can huff and puff about language but shareholders demand the most capable person for the job and speaking French isn't even on the radar when hiring. 

Air Canada's rarefied boardroom may be located in the head office in Montreal but it operates in English without a whimper of a complaint by the OLF.

In the asymmetric world of language politics, it's important for you to speak French but not for them to speak English.
The idea that an anglophone can live in Quebec without French is outrageous while it makes perfect sense for a francophone to live in Canada without any English.
The argument made is that in Quebec there's really no need or requirement to speak English because everything is available in French. But that of course can be said of English in the downtown and western half of Montreal.
Deux poids deux measures.

Those who call for Mr. Rousseau's resignation because of his lack of French and apparent indifference need to understand that Air Canada is a for-profit corporation whose president and CEO owe loyalty to shareholders only.

Of course, Air Canada is subject to the Official languages Act because when the government privatized it, that condition was embedded. Paradoxically it means that unilingual French-speaking employees must be able to work in their language, but for militants, this should not apply to Mr. Rousseau.
In fact, the proposed Quebec language law that the government is trying to pass making a company prove that another language is necessary before making it a condition of employment can apply to Mr. Rousseau explicitly who is unilingual and has no need to speak another language. Ha!

Language militants are making all sorts of nonsense and desperate arguments, like the fact that Air Canada received a lot of government aid during the pandemic, so the CEO must speak French because Quebec taxpayers helped foot the bill.
Does it mean that those same taxpayers must speak English because they receive equalization payments from English Alberta? 
Nonsense.

Militants also demand that the CEO speaks French because the head office is in Montreal, a situation with an easy solution à la Sun Life.
The very idea that Air Canada's head office remains in Montreal is absurd, with Toronto the hub of its corporate and business life. Quebec remains a tiny part of Air Canada's business and should be treated as such.

You know what else is nonsense?
Forcing Air Canada to have a French-speaking cabin crew on every flight, even local ones in BC where the chances are overwhelming that nobody on the flight is francophone.
In the asymmetric world of Quebec language militancy, this makes perfect sense, a bus driver on a route in the west island of Montreal where perhaps 75% of the passengers are English need not answer a question in English.

It is time to update the Official LAnguages act to make forced bilingualism apply to all or none.

Quebec cannot have its cake and eat it too. 

Mr. Rousseau should have not apologized (which he did) and rather should have told Quebec to like it or lump it.

As for rumblings of a boycott... another farcical joke.
There are only two criteria for choosing an airline, price and convenience.