Mirror Michael Thibodeau sued Air Canada after he was given a Sprite instead of a 7UP by an English speaking air hostess. Canada could soon force all airlines serving their country to have a French speaking crew member aboard – after a passenger complained he was served the ‘wrong lemonade’. French language ‘extremist’ Michael Thibodeau sued Air Canada after he was given a Sprite instead of 7Up by an English speaking stewardess.

He branded the airline’s employees as ‘malicious, oppressive and reprehensible’ for not answering his questions in French during the 2009 flight, despite the fact he’s a fluent English speaker. The legal action has now inspired Canadian MP Stephane Dion to lodge a bill in parliament demanding that all flights to and from bilingual Canada have a French speaker on board.

He said: “Being able to order 7Up in French on a plane is a fundamental right in Canada and all Canadians should be able to sue the airlines if this is not the case.” He is calling for the Official Languages Act – which ensures French and English are given equal status – to extend the rules to all international flights serving Canada. Mr Thibodeau was initially awarded $12,250 in damages in 2010, but Air Canada appealed and the ruling was overturned.

He then took his case to the Canadian Supreme Court, where judges ruled that the Official Languages Act does not allow citizens to sue for cash damages for being spoken to in the wrong language. Instead, the airline was only ordered to apologize to the couple and ensure the Languages Act was respected in future.

Mr Thibodeau had also filed a similar language complaint against Ottawa’s bus company in 2002 after a driver greeted him with ‘hello’ instead of ‘bonjour’. Canada’s National Post newspaper has described Mr Thibodeau as the linguistic equivalent of a ‘supermarket coupon clipper’. 

I’m positive you will not come across or read about a bigger bag of dicks than this asshole.  You have not only a guy who can tell the difference between lemon-lime sodas, but a guy who will openly bitch about it in public, AND sue the airline for damages, those right there are the three prongs of the devil’s pitchfork.

Anytime I order a Coke and the server tells me “we only have Pepsi” I playfully suggest I’m walking out on the establishment. It’s tongue and cheek and fun is had but all most. This guy is the worst actually taking his case to court. Pepsi and Coke are at least two different drinks, I do not know if I could differentiate between 7-Up and Sprite…

Just so we consider both side of this argument it is possible he has seen this Sprite commercial and is such a homophobe he is fearful of an epic bukake…

Oooo that’s a compelling argument, lets go to our judge….