The federal government is launching a study on airlines’ treatment of people with disabilities, and accessibility issues within the air travel system.
This comes after multiple travel horror stories from disabled Canadians – including Rodney Hodgins, a Prince George man in a wheelchair who was forced to physically drag himself off an Air Canada plane, and Stephanie Cadieux, Canada’s Chief Accessibility Officer, whose wheelchair was left behind on a cross-country flight.
Well. @AirCanada left my chair in Toronto. I’m now without my essential equipment. Independence taken away. I’m furious. Unacceptable. #RightsOnFlights pic.twitter.com/h1WPUwlgxw
— Stephanie Cadieux (@Stephanie4BC) October 21, 2023
In Hodgins’ case, Air Canada eventually admitted they violated Canada’s disability regulations.
“We’ve heard apologies, we’ve heard commitments to do better, but the government is in a position to ensure this never happens again by strengthening the regulations governing airlines and other parts of the air transport sector,” Taylor Bachrach, the Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP and NDP Transport Critic, said in a release.Â
NDP disability and inclusion critic Bonita Zarrillo added “No one should be forced to drag themselves off a plane because the airline doesn’t have the equipment, or staff trained, to keep passengers safe.”
According to Bachrach, other instances of disabled passengers being mistreated include “one in which the person was dropped repeatedly by staff when they denied to use a lift to move him, and one in which the person had her ventilator disconnected and had a lift dropped on her head.”