Languages commissioner seeks clout over Air Canada
Air Canada consistently flouts the Official Languages Act and Parliament must do more to pressure the company to comply with the rules, Canada’s official languages commissioner said Tuesday.
As he tabled a special report on the airline in the Commons, Graham Fraser said his office doesn’t have enough power to force it to offer more French-language services.
“My predecessors and I have used all of the tools at our disposal in order to help Air Canada improve its compliance to the act,” he told reporters. “However, after 45 years, the same issues continue to repeat themselves.”
He said his office continues to receive complaints about unilingual anglophone employees on Air Canada flights between Montreal and northern Quebec and beefs regarding employees who refuse to get French-speaking agents to help francophone travellers.
Fraser said what turns an unhappy passenger into a complainant is the contempt the airline’s employees allegedly show toward people who ask for service in French.
Fraser’s report is specifically about the airline, which under federal law is obligated to provide French-language services.
The report outlines four ways Parliament can help him pressure Air Canada, including giving him the power to levy fines for non-compliance. Fraser said another option is to modify the law to allow a court to force the airline to pay damages and interest when it is found to have broken the rules. He also said Parliament can penalize the airline with other financial sanctions or allow his office to enter into binding agreements with the company.
The commissioner asked MPs to study his report “with urgency and as a priority.”
Heritage Minister Melanie Joly said Tuesday she would work with Transport Minister Marc Garneau to ensure things change.