Air Canada still convicted of violating francophone rights

A Canadian Federal Court judge found Air Canada guilty of violating francophone rights on Tuesday, August 27. The company must pay 21,000 Canadian dollars (14,300 euros) to a couple who accused them of favoring English in its planes. This conviction is far from being the first of its kind for the company.

In Canada, the law requires that French and English – the two official languages ​​of the country – be on an equal footing. But for Michel and Lynda Thibodeau, a couple of French-speaking passengers, Air Canada ignores this rule.

22 complaints

From the moment they embarked, the two plaintiffs found that the announcement of this Fredericton-Montreal flight lasted fifteen seconds in English, while the French version was three times shorter. It was then the instruction on the belts ("lift", "lift" in French) that irritated them. And the straw that broke the camel's back: the luminous signs all indicated the word "Exit" and not "Exit".

At the height of anger, the couple filed no less than twenty-two complaints in 2016. Tuesday, August 27, Judge Martine St-Louis proved them right, saying that "the display English or English preponderance, and the fuller boarding announcement in English contravenes the law. " Air Canada will therefore have to pay a fine of 1,500 Canadian dollars (1,020 euros) per complaint processed, ie 9,000 dollars (6.117 euros) for Lynda Thibodeau and 12,000 (8.156 euros) dollars for Michel Thibodeau. The company will also have to write a formal letter of apology.

Air Canada is not at its first linguistic violation: last May, the Office of the Languages ​​Commissioner had already dealt with 105 complaints against the company, now known to be "one of the worst students in French language services in Canada" .