Ottawa (Rajeev Sharma): Air Canada announced on Monday, March 30, 2026, that President and CEO Michael Rousseau will retire by the end of the third quarter of this year. The decision follows a week of intense national backlash after Rousseau released an English-only video message of condolence following the fatal crash of Air Canada Express Flight 8646 at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on March 22. The controversy was further fueled by the fact that the flight originated in Montreal and one of the two pilots killed, Captain Antoine Forest, was a francophone from Quebec.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who had previously criticized the unilingual message as showing a “lack of judgment and a lack of compassion,” welcomed the transition. Carney emphasized that as Canada’s national carrier, Air Canada has a “special responsibility” to communicate in both official languages at all times. The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages reportedly received over 2,000 complaints regarding the video, which contained only two French words: “bonjour” and “merci.”
In his retirement announcement, Rousseau expressed pride in his nearly two-decade tenure with the airline but apologized for his inability to adequately express himself in French, stating he was saddened that his language skills had diverted attention from the grief of the victims’ families. The Air Canada Board of Directors confirmed that a global search for a successor began in January 2026 and that the “ability to communicate in French” is now a primary performance criterion for the next CEO. While the board framed the move as a planned retirement, the timing—coming just days after Rousseau was summoned to testify before a parliamentary committee—suggests the language scandal significantly accelerated his departure.
