Air Canada has been ordered to pay a French-speaking couple 21,000 Canadian dollars (£12,900; $15,700) and write them a letter of apology for violating their linguistic rights. The couple complained that some signs on a domestic flight they took were only in English, while others gave the French version less prominence.A judge ruled that the airline had breached Canada’s bilingualism laws.
Air Canada reportedly told the court it would work to replace the signs. Ontario couple Michel and Lynda Thibodeau filed 22 complaints against the airline in 2016. Among them, they argued that the word “lift” was engraved on the buckles of their seatbelts in English but not in French, while French translations of words such as “exit” were in smaller characters.
They also said the English-language boarding announcement for their Montreal-bound flight was more thorough than the French version.
