Air Canada’s attempt to kick off Pride month with a celebratory post about its first-ever “all 2SLGBTQIA+ flight” backfired almost instantly, drawing a flood of critical responses from Canadians and prompting the airline to shut down comments.
The Monday post was flooded with negative replies, overwhelming the number of likes it received, which prompted the airline’s social media team to turn off the replies a few hours after the post was initially published.
“We’re doing the first ever—now let me get this one straight, because a few letters have been added to this one—2SLGBTQIA+ flight ever in Canada,” said a pilot featured in the video.
Despite limiting who can reply a few hours after the post, the previous top comments remain active. Canadians offered their views in the replies before they were turned off, telling the airline to focus on safe air travel instead of identity politics.
Canadian columnist Jonathan Kay made a sarcastic remark surrounding the two-spirit letter of the acronym.
“Yes, that was the problem with my last flight. The pilot only had one ‘spirit’,” he said.
Various gay Canadians also took aim at the airline.
“Absolutely ridiculous and embarrassing. Signed by a gay man,” wrote one user.
“Gay here. I’d much rather you focus on landing planes safely than whether your crew is attracted to the same sex. This makes me dislike Air Canada even more,” said Josh Dehaas, legal counsel for the Canadian Constitution Foundation.
Some Canadians were also calling on Air Canada to abandon identity politics.
“Enough of this ridiculous nonsense. What does someone’s sexual behaviour have to do with operating an airline?” said one user.
“Holy fk could you get any more woke. And good to know that you place greater importance on specific groups of people, rather than treating everyone as equals. You truly are pathetic,” said another.
True North previously reported on widespread diversity, equity and inclusion programs embedded throughout Canada’s airline sector — including identity-based hiring targets and mandatory ideological training.
Air Canada mandates employee training on “microaggressions,” “allyship,” and “unconscious bias.” The company employs a dedicated D.E.I. sourcing manager, and requires recruitment slates to include individuals from government-defined “designated groups.”
WestJet has implemented genderless uniforms and has boasted about flights staffed entirely by female crews.
Transat mandates unconscious bias workshops, and Flair has hosted “Pride flights” in alignment with LGBTQ activism. Sunwing became the first airline to implement a gender-neutral pilot dress code and has hosted promotional flights led by all-Black crews.