MONTREAL — Canadian National has hired a Montreal-based search firm to help find a French-speaking member for its board of directors, the railroad has announced.
The announcement came as part of a Friday statement announcing the election of a new board chairwoman and 10 other board members.
New board chairwoman Shauneen Bruder said the railroad intends to appoint a francophone and Quebec-based director “in the coming months.
“CN takes this process very seriously,” Bruder said in the statement. “It will be rigorous, of the highest integrity, and consistent with our principles of best-in-class governance.”
The lack of a French-speaking board member has been criticized by Canada’s Transport Minister, Omar Alghabra, and raised the possibility of a protest in board voting by Quebec pension agency Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec [see “Quebec pension fund may protest …,” Trains News Wire, May 16, 2022].
The Montreal Gazette reports that lack of a francophone board member led the Société Saint-Jean-Baptist de Montreal, which promotes Quebec francophone interests and sovereignty, to place a giant lemon in front of CN headquarters on Friday to protest the railroad’s lack of respect for the French language.
Marie-Anne Alepin, the society’s president, said the absence of a French speaker at CN’s highest levels “shows contempt for francophones.”
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