Air Canada will in turn comply with Law 96 protecting the French, the airline said Monday, days after an identical announcement by Canadian National.
The company announced in a brief press release “its voluntary registration with the Québec French Language Office under the French Language Charter after several months of discussions with the office.”
Like CN, Air Canada is a federal chartered company and is therefore subject to the federal government’s official language law. However, Bill 96 passed by Quebec to strengthen France’s Bill 101 now requires these companies To with the OQLF and take clearing action for their actions.
Air Canada theoretically had to comply by December 1 and, like CN, was called to order.
The airline had been embroiled in various linguistic controversies in recent years, the most notable of which was undoubtedly the assumed monolingualism of its President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Rousseau.
The latter had caused an outcry in Quebec in 2021 when he claimed he had lived only in English since settling in Montreal some fifteen years earlier. He then had to apologize and promised to learn French.
“As Canada’s largest airline, Air Canada is proud of its commitment to the French language in Quebec and throughout its global network. The additional gesture that the company is making today reflects its desire to contribute to the protection, promotion and influence of the French language,” the company assured on Monday.