Hours after announced its , reaction poured in from politicians, the public and on social media, including from billionaire Elon Musk.
The announcement about Michael Rousseau came after days of calls for him to resign amid controversy over his English-only video condolence following a deadly Air Canada crash at LaGuardia Airport that killed the pilots, one of whom was from Quebec.
The company said in a statement that its board had a “longstanding focus” on CEO succession planning. It added an external global search started in January 2026 to identify potential candidates to lead the airline.
But while Rousseau’s announced retirement was welcomed by political leaders, Musk took to the social media platform he owns to call the departure “crazy.”
“That’s crazy,” Musk wrote in reply to a post on X about the retirement. “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!”
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Musk’s post was accompanied by a screengrab showing Grok, the AI chatbot, being asked, presumably by the X owner, to list all French mandate laws in Canada and how it’s “hypocritical” compared to no English mandate laws.
Grok notes Quebec’s Charter of the French language and, more recently, Bill 96, which includes requiring French to be used in government communications and to be “markedly predominant” on store signs.
The AI chatbot also noted the Canadian government’s legislation that guarantees the right to be served and to work in French in businesses under federal jurisdiction in Quebec.
The federal government’s bill was focused on strengthening protections around the French language and recognizing it as the only official language in Canada that is under threat and thus must be protected in federal workplaces.
Quebec’s laws have drawn the ire of people in the past, including the U.S., which last year listed Premier Francois Legault’s French-language reform as a barrier to trade. The U.S. reasoning focuses on the requirement by Quebec on companies to translate into French any part of their trademark on product packaging that contains generic terms or descriptions of items.
The province stressed at the time it wouldn’t be softening its language laws despite the U.S. criticism.
Following Rousseau’s video last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney was one of the first to criticize it, saying he was “very disappointed.”
“It doesn’t matter the circumstances but particularly in these circumstances: a lack of judgment and a lack of compassion,” Carney told reporters last Thursday.
“We live in a bilingual country. Companies like Air Canada, particularly, have a responsibility to always communicate in both official languages, regardless of the situation.”
Quebec’s legislative assembly also voted unanimously, with one abstention, demanding Rousseau resign.
Rousseau has previously apologized for being unable to express himself adequately in French.
— With files from Global News’ Adriana Fallico and Sean Boynton, and The Canadian Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
