An airline in Canada was ordered to pay a hefty fine after it violated the linguistic rights of its passengers.
Air Canada was ordered by an Ottawa court to pay a 21,000 Canadian dollars (Dhs 57,723.25) to a French couple for breaching Canada’s bilingualism law, says a report from BBC.
Air Canada is subject to the country’s Official Languages Act, where the languages English and French are given equal status.
The 22 complaints were filed by Ontario couple Michel and Lynda Thibodeau back in 2016.
They complained that some signs on a domestic flight they took were only in English. They said the French version was given less prominence.
Even the boarding announcement was more thorough in the English language rather than in the French version.
Air Canada reportedly told the court that it would work to replace the signs.
This is not the first time that the couple filed a complaint against the airline for violating their linguistic rights.
Back in 2014, they sued the airline over a mistaken drink order on an international flight. The Supreme Court ruled the couple could not sue the airline and would have to settle for an apology, Toronto Sun reported.
