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Jesse Kline: Tell me again why Air Canada must be officially bilingual

Subjecting the airline to the Official Languages Act was always unnecessary, even more so in the era of AI translators

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The horrific crash at New York’s LaGuardia airport last weekend, in which an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck on the runway, has been described by Canadian politicians as a “crisis” that’s completely “unacceptable.” Only they weren’t talking about who may be to blame for an accident that killed two pilots and injured 40 others. Oh, no. This is Canada, where a crash landing sparks a discussion not about aviation safety, but about language “rights.”

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In the wake of the backlash against Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau releasing an English-language video shortly after the crash to give his condolences and update those affected on the situation, a serious country would be questioning why a private air carrier is subject to the Byzantine Official Languages Act (OLA) in the first place.

Jesse Kline: Tell me again why Air Canada must be officially bilingual Back to video

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Instead, the House of Commons official languages committee unanimously approved a motion on Tuesday expressing its “strong........

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