Dimitris Soudas 🇨🇦⚜️🇬🇷☦️ 13.12.1943@DimitrisSoudas
Let’s be precise.
Millions of Canadians are not paid 12 million dollars a year to lead a company that is legally bound by the Official Languages Act. That standard exists for a reason. It comes with the job. It is not optional.
Framing this as a struggle of “ordinary Canadians versus elites” is simply not grounded in reality. In Ottawa, the vast majority of deputy ministers are Anglophone. In cabinet, francophone ministers have often presented in English. I do not recall many, if any, Anglophone ministers presenting in French. The imbalance you are pointing to is not where you suggest it is.
This is not about sidelining anyone. It is about leadership and responsibility.
Mr. Rousseau has lived in Quebec for two decades. His spouse is francophone. He leads a national carrier subject to federal law. He publicly committed years ago to learning French. After hundreds of hours of tutoring, in a moment that required dignity and respect, he could not deliver even a few sentences in the language of one of the victims and their family.
That is not about control. That is about priority.
And let’s be honest about the lived reality of this country. Francophones who move into majority Anglophone environments adapt quickly because they must. They do not have the luxury of opting out. That expectation has never been controversial. Yet when the expectation is reversed at the highest levels of leadership, it suddenly becomes a debate about fairness.
It is not.
Canada made a foundational choice. Two official languages. Not one and a half. Not when convenient. Not when it is easy.
In moments of tragedy, language is not a technicality. It is how you show respect. It is how you honour people. It is how you lead.
Reducing this to a question of control or elite pressure misses the point entirely and risks turning a matter of basic respect into an unnecessary division.