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Air Canada Ordered to Pay $15,000 for Violating Linguistic Rights of Francophone Couple

The airline lost a lawsuit brought on by a French couple who complained that the word “lift” was not written in French on the airline’s seat belts.

A French couple has been awarded $15,000 from Air Canada for not adhering to the linguistic rights of Francophones. Canada is officially a bilingual nation, but the Air Canada jet that Michel and Lynda Thibodeau flew in 2016 did not have instructions, including the word “lift” on their seatbelts in both French and English. The couple filed a lawsuit with 22 complaints, including that the French words for “exit” and “warning” were somewhat smaller than the English words and that the safety announcement in French was less detailed than the English version. The couple had also filed similar complaints against the airline in 2005, 2011 and 2012, but this is the first time a judge ruled in their favor.