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Fortune
Fortune
Diane Brady

Ousted Air Canada CEO failed to speak French—and forgot the basics of crisis leadership

(Credit: Nick Lachance—Toronto Star)
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Bonjour. After five years as CEO of Air Canada, Michael Rousseau announced his retirement from the Montreal-based airline yesterday after being pilloried for speaking almost no French in a video statement about last week’s deadly crash at LaGuardia Airport. The mind boggles: Did Rousseau not know how to say something other than “hello” and “thank you” in both of Canada’s two official languages? Were others unaware? What’s clear is that this backlash is about more than linguistic ability. Some takeaways:

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