News Air Canada pays £8k to couple who sued them for speaking English

[Scruce]

Air Canada have been forced to pay out £8,000 after being sued by a French-speaking couple who were unhappy they were spoken to in English.

The judge in the case ruled that Air Canada had not respected Michel and Lynda Thibodeau's right to be served in their native language during a flight from the country's capital Ottawa.

Mr Thibodeau, who does speak fluent English, complained that he was not greeted in French when the pair checked in for their flight or at the airport's boarding gate.

According to the Daily Mail, he also branded the airline's employees 'malicious, oppressive and reprehensible' for not answering his questions in French.

Mr Thibodeau had sued Air Canada for £350,000 for breach of the Official Languages Act, under which Air Canada must communicate and provide services in English and French.

But a Canadian federal court ordered the airline to pay the couple £7,850 in damages and apologise.

The ruling has reignited debate over Canada's linguistic divide.

The country is officially bilingual but arguments are often stirred by nationalists in French-speaking Quebec.

Canadian constitional expert Michael Behiels said: 'Canada is an officially bilingual country and Air Canada is bound by the Official Languages Act.

'If it doesn't respect the Act, then that will aggravate the separatists in Quebec and we don't want that to happen.'

Mr Thibodeau said after the ruling last week: 'This was a violation of my linguistic rights, and at some point you have to stand up for your rights or lose them.'

Will they have greet you in Spanish or German as well? :blink:

 

[garyw]

Madness. What happens if someone is French but wants to be spoken to in English? If the staff assume English they might get sued for that!

If they had said to the staff 'We would prefer a French speaker' and been refused then fair enough but this is just madness.

 

[Poscik]

People are weird. Absurdal...

 

[Turbinator]

Yes, Canada is a royal pain in the ass when it comes to French.
It is the number one reason why I had an extra hard time getting a job in an airline.

Pretty much the only place in Canada where people use French daily and as their primary language is in Quebec. And not all cities in Quebec, at that.

 

[FADEC]

Somehow reminds me of an Airbus cockpit crew from Air France which I saw in an aviation video some time ago. They had a hard time speaking English into the camera. The English of the first officer was terrible and fragmentary. Wonder how he got his radio telephony certificate.

I Hope it's not too politically incorrect when I say this, but some Frenchmen obviously really hate the English language :lol:

 

[DanM]

How would they even know to greet him in French? People are getting more and more ridiculous every day.

 

[Evil_Onyx]

It is madness. Just why. I would expect to be addressed in the language of the airline and/or the language that is spoken at the airport, i would not expect to be greeted in two languages.

All so why is the damages listed in £ rather than C$ ???

 

[Scruce]

All so why is the damages listed in £ rather than C$ ???

Because the article is from a British newspaper.

 

[Tex]

It's the law. In English and in French.. :rofl:

 

[Izack]

I'm not surprised at all. No offense intended, but the minority of French speakers always get their way over the anglophones. Just look at the education system in N.B. You MUST teach French to all English students, but the French-only schools have no such restrictions, and furthermore are allowed to deny access to children whose mother tongue is English, which would be considered racist and unacceptable for an English school. All because the French are better at making demands. >.>

Edit: This does remind me though of a case in the US I heard of once, in which a woman sued either Ford or GM because she wrongly believed that cruise control was autopilot...