Are they that paranoid?

I'm talking about the hysteria over an English statement put out by Air Canada President Michael Rousseau.  Horror of horror, it was in English (with French translation, but apparently that doesn't count)!

The guy may have a French name, but he's English.  Correct me if I'm wrong -- and apparently all the hysterics in the media would say I am -- but the last time I checked, Air Canada is no longer a crown corporation, so was not under federal bilingual rules.  English is one of our official languages; it's also the language of international air traffic and business -- even in France.

I bet if the message had been in French only, no one would have batted an eye.  Get my drift?

But no, the French media and the Quebec government lost their minds and went insane.  Pundits were all over the air waves rending their garments and gnashing their teeth in risible displays of outrage and the premier demanded his resignation.  Legault probably wants Rousseau's head on a stick!  

Legault calling for Rousseau's head.

Never mind the tragic death of the two young pilots, both in their thirties.  No, never mind that, that's nothing.  The crime is the fact that the English president of Air Canada issued a statement of sympathy in English.  Rousseau was in a mad rush to get to the crash site, which he appropriately deemed more important than waiting around for someone to work up French cue cards.

Carney was disgracefully right in the thick of it, complaining along.  What do you think would have happened if the message had been in French, with English subtitles?  Nothing.  Think about that for a minute.

There was also the impending by-election in Terrebonne that had to be paramount.  So, French, French and French were the watchwords here.  To put an election above decent humanity is appalling, but that's what the Liberals did. 

It's absolutely preposterous.

That's the level of paranoia francophones apparently have over their precious French language in this country.  It overrides even death.  Shockingly, the 'Globe and Mail's front page ran with the story as it's lead headline.

If it weren't so tragic, it would be funny.  Frankly, I wonder how the families of those young men feel with no one talking about their children; apparently that's an annoying sidebar.  It's only the language the president used that so mightily offends.  I'd be furious that no one ran stories about my child's background and career in such a tragedy.

The French lost the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and the French have been pouting ever since.  The British, in their misplaced magnanimity, bent over backwards to accommodate the losing party by making French an official language and giving control of provincial education to the Catholic Church.  Ridiculously, we've been bending over backwards to accommodate them ever since.

The British prevailed.

I'm sick of it.