In addition to the multiple politicians, business people and cultural leaders chiming in about Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau’s retirement announcement, billionaire Elon Musk had a thing to say. “That’s crazy,” Musk responded to a Polymarket post announcing the news on X. “Moreover, it is not not reciprocal at all. There are many one-sided laws in Canada that mandate French at the expense of English. Extremely hypocritical and unfair!” Musk then posted an AI-generated list of “all the French mandate laws in Canada and how this is hypocritical compared to no English mandate laws.” The list includes Bill 101, the Official Languages Act, the French Language Services Acts and others, and the AI-bot Grok adding, “There are zero English-mandate laws in Canada at the federal, provincial or territorial levels.” Several replies questioned Musk and Grok’s take on Quebec’s language laws. “You are misinformed and so is Grok,” wrote one user. The only ‘one-sided’ laws (if there are any) concerning language are within Quebec itself and only to protect the survival of the Quebec people and their culture... In a North American sea of English, we would quickly disappear if we didn’t actively protect our language and culture. I thought you were sensitive to the survival of distinct cultures." Another pointed out that Air Canada, though a private company, is subject to the Official Languages Act. The airline heralds its “Dialogue Award,” which “has the objective to recognize and highlight our employees’ commitment to and efforts in offering service in both official languages.” Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet says he is fine being on the other side of a debate with Musk. “It’s very reassuring: if @elonmusk takes a stand against the preservation of French in Quebec, it’s because we are morally on the right path,“ Blanchet wrote on X. ”The path of morality and the common good is one he does not frequent." Musk, originally from South Africa, moved to Saskatchewan in 1989 to live with his mother, who was born there. He then attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., before moving to the U.S. in 1992. He became an American citizen in 2002. Rousseau’s retirement announcement comes after he recorded a message of condolence in English only for Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther, the two pilots killed on the LaGuardia Airport runway on March 24. Forest is a francophone from Coteau-du-Lac, Que. Rousseau, who works out of Air Canada’s head office in Montreal, later apologized and said that he remains unable to express himself adequately in French. The political consensus in Quebec, Montreal and Ottawa was all but unanimous that Rousseau should step down. Rousseau was previously taken to task in 2021 for a unilingual English speech, noting he was unable to answer questions in French during interviews. At that time, he apologized for not being able to speak French and said, “I pledge today to improve my French.”
