Air Canada failing to provide full services in both official languages: report

Whether travelling by plane, train or automobile, francophone travellers are struggling to access services in their language, Canada's official languages commissioner said Tuesday.

Whether travelling by plane, train or automobile, francophone travellers are struggling to access services in their language, Canada's official languages commissioner said Tuesday.

Raymond Theberge said it's an ongoing struggle that has gotten worse in the last decade, especially as people begin travelling again.

"After more than two years of the (COVID-19) pandemic, Canadians have finally been able to return to a certain degree of normalcy and resume activities that were put on hold due to pandemic-related health restrictions," Theberge told reporters Tuesday after presenting his annual report.

"This normalcy, however, has highlighted official language issues that I've repeatedly raised in the past, but are still very much present."

His 2022-23 report shows Air Canada received the most complaints. But airport authorities in major cities and the Canada Border Services Agency are also at fault of violating the Official Languages Act by not providing full services in people's official language of choice, said Theberge.

The complaints are generally around a lack of bilingual services and staff, but his report also highlighted a lack of signage in English and French, and not having multilingual reservation systems.

Some 495 complaints were lodged against federally regulated travel institutions between April 2022 and the end of March, with 276 of those complaints singling out Air Canada, said Theberge.