Identity Politics

Marc Miller criticized Air Canada's CEO for delivering a unilingual message during a tragedy in a bilingual country, saying 'He should know better,' while noting he was refraining from making 'political hay over what remains a tragedy with people still in hospital.'

Carney says Canada's bilingual identity obliges organizations to use both official languages; he called Air Canada's English-only condolence 'a lack of judgment' and 'a lack of compassion,' emphasizing companies' responsibility to always communicate in both official languages.

She criticized Air Canada's English-only message as showing a "lack of empathy" toward francophone victims, noting "a lot of the victims and their families are francophones," and called it "a question of moral leadership," stressing sensitivity to francophone identity.

Blanchet condemns Air Canada CEO's English-only condolence as a 'sad and gross lack of respect' toward the family of a French-speaking Quebec pilot, arguing the CEO may have disqualified himself for failing to respect Quebecers' linguistic identity.