‘Unseemly’

Dear Editor:

I suppose there could be several reactions to Prime Minister Mark Carney publicly rebuking Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau.The news had just broken that two pilots, Mckenzie Gunther and Antoine Forest, flying out of Montreal, unfortunately had died while attempting to land at LaGuardia Airport in New York.

As was appropriate, condolences were swift including one by video message of Mr. Rousseau as he was rushing to catch a plane to take him to the scene of the accident. His fatal flaw, however, was not delivering his message in both official languages,  English and French. This did not go unnoticed, resulting in hundreds of phone calls to the government, the media and others.

In response, our prime minister appeared on air berating Air Canada’s CEO for his lack of judgment and compassion for the families of the two pilots. He was summoned to Ottawa by the prime minister. We are officially a bilingual country.

Maybe some people like to see a CEO berated in public. Maybe the Liberals are hoping to hold on to their seats in Quebec and gain others. Maybe Mark Carney forgot he ran in an election a year ago admitting his usage of the French language was rudimentary. Maybe Canadians didn’t care then and felt there were more important issues.

My initial response was that these two tragic deaths had nothing to do with politics and it was unseemly to make it so at that time. I still feel that way.

Janet Calderwood,
Rockwood