The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that two years ago, TD Bank admitted to money laundering and was fined $3-billion (U.S.) in criminal penalties. Guest columnist Andrew Miller writes that naturally, its chief executive officer at the time, Bharat Masrani, apologized for the misdeed. He spoke only in English. If you do not remember his choice of language being a national scandal, that is because it was not. This week, Michael Rousseau, Air Canada's CEO, released a four-minute condolence video following a fatal runway collision at LaGuardia -- one that killed two pilots, including a French-speaking Quebecker -- almost entirely in English. In response, the Prime Minister said he expects an explanation from the airline's board. What makes Air Canada different is that the airline started out as a Crown corporation; when it was privatized in 1988, the sale had strings attached. The airline did not emerge from Crown ownership as an ordinary private company. It emerged as a kind of hybrid: a private company carrying the statutory obligations of a federal institution. Its main domestic competitor, WestJet, has none of these obligations. Air Canada is treated as private when it competes and public when it offends.