Canada could make French compulsory on its flights after “wrong lemonade” lawsuit

Posted by: admin , April 27, 2015

Canada might soon require its airlines to have a French-speaking member of crew on board after Air Canada was sued by a man who received the “wrong lemonade”.
Michael Thibodeau sued Air Canada after he was given a Sprite instead of a 7Up by an English speaking flight attendant and branded the airline’s employees as “malicious, oppressive and reprehensible” for not answering his questions in French even though he speaks fluent English.
The Supreme court ruled a breach of the ‘Languages Act’ does not warrant a cash payout.
However, the incident has inspired MP Stephane Dion to lodge a bill in Parliament requiring bilingual service on all flights, arguing that Canadians have a fundamental right to order 7Up in French.
In 2002, Michael filed a complaint against a bus company after the driver greeted him with hello instead of bonjour!