Two pilots are dead.
A Montreal-bound jet collided with a fire truck on a runway at LaGuardia Airport.
Captain Antoine Forest, a francophone from Quebec. First Officer Mackenzie Gunther, from Ontario.
Two young aviation professionals who didn’t come home.
Within 24 hours, Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau posted a nearly four-minute condolence video.
He spoke two French words.
“Bonjour.”
And at the very end: “Merci.”
Everything else—every sentence, every expression of “deepest sorrow,” every word of comfort to the families of two men who died wearing Air Canada’s logo—was in English.
With French subtitles.
For the CEO of an airline headquartered in Montreal.
In a country with two official languages.
Where one of the dead pilots was a Quebecer.
This wasn’t just a PR failure.
It was a failure of empathy at the exact moment empathy was the only thing that mattered.
1. The Promise That Made It Worse
Here’s what turned a tone-deaf moment into a resignation:
Rousseau had been here before.
In 2021, the same year he became CEO, he was criticized for giving a speech almost entirely in English. In Montreal. At his own company’s headquarters.
He apologized.
He promised to learn French.
He took lessons.
For five years.
And when the moment came, the moment that called for compassion, for bilingual leadership, for a CEO to simply say “we grieve with you” in the language of one of the families he was addressing, he had two words.
The apology that followed only deepened the wound.
Rousseau said he was “deeply saddened that my inability to speak French has diverted attention from the profound grief of the families.”
Read that again.
He centered himself, his sadness about his language gap, in an apology that was supposed to be about grieving families.
That’s not an apology. That’s a press release wearing one.
Read: Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau Struggles Speaking French
2. The Political Wildfire
Within days:
- Quebec’s Premier called for his resignation
- The National Assembly voted unanimously, all 92 members, to demand he step down
- Over 1,800 complaints were filed with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
- Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said the video showed “a lack of compassion and judgment”
- Rousseau was summoned to testify before a parliamentary committee
One botched video.
Twelve days later, he was gone.
Read: Air Canada CEO to Retire After English-Only Condolence Video Controversy
The airline framed his departure as a long-planned succession. The board had been working on it for two years, they said. An external search began in January.
Maybe that’s true.
But the search criteria announced alongside his departure told the real story.
The next CEO must be able to “communicate in French.”
They had to add that. In writing. As a criterion.
For the CEO of Air Canada.
3. The Communications Autopsy
Let’s be clear about what went wrong because it’s bigger than language.
The failure wasn’t that Rousseau couldn’t speak French.
Plenty of leaders communicate effectively through their limitations. You acknowledge them. You address them directly. You involve people who fill the gap.
The failures were:
No one caught it before it published. Where was the communications team? The crisis counsel? The bilingual spokesperson who could have stood alongside him, or delivered the French portion themselves? This video was produced, reviewed, and approved. Somewhere in that chain, everyone failed.
The content centered the wrong person. A condolence video is not about the CEO. It is about the families. The employees. The pilots. When Rousseau’s language became the story of the video, before it was even released, the communications strategy had already collapsed.
The follow-up apology didn’t fix it. It fueled it. Saying “I’m sorry my French isn’t good enough” is not the same as saying “I failed these families and this country.” One is about a skill gap. The other is about judgment. And judgment is what people were questioning.
The institutional history made it unforgivable. If this had been year one, it might have been forgivable. But five years of promises, lessons, and failures, all while earning $13.1 million annually, removed every margin for grace.
Watch: Air Canada CEO Issues Apology Over English-Only Condolence Video After Crash
The Playbook They Should Have Used
A. Know your audience before you hit record
A crisis response is not a press release. You ask: who was affected? What language do they speak? What do they need to hear and in what voice? The answer here was obvious, urgent, and ignored.
B. If you have a known limitation, close the gap
Rousseau couldn’t speak French adequately. That’s not a crime. But not planning around that especially in a crisis involving a francophone pilot is a leadership failure.
C. The apology must center the grieved, not the apologizer
“I’m so sorry for your loss” lands differently than “I’m so sorry my French isn’t better.” One is about them. One is about you. In a crisis, it should always be about them.
D. Don’t let legal or corporate comfort override human instinct
The subtitled video felt safe. It covered the bases technically. It failed humanly. And in a crisis, the human failure always becomes the headline.
The Bigger Lesson
Two pilots died.
Their families deserved to hear from the head of the airline that employed them, in the language that mattered to them within the first 24 hours.
That didn’t happen.
What happened instead was a masterclass in how quickly communications can collapse when process overrides empathy.
Rousseau will retire by end of Q3.
Air Canada will find a bilingual CEO.
The industry will move on.
But the families of Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther will remember exactly what the airline’s first words were.
And so will we.
Until next time,
Aaron Blank
President and CEO
Fearey