Lawsuit Over Passenger Care

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One of the country’s largest airport authorities is in legal dispute with regulators over who’s responsible for tending to passengers. The court challenge follows a 2014 incident in which a blind woman was unable to get help at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

Donna Jodhan, an Ontario advocate for the blind, complained to the Canadian Transportation Agency she had no assistance with a wheelchair or luggage after a Caribbean Airlines flight. Details of the case were kept confidential by regulators. The Agency named the Greater Toronto Airport Authority as responsible for disabled passengers’ care – a claim disputed by the local authority.

“Under the terms of the Canada Transportation Act and its applicable regulations it is the air carriers operating at Pearson Airport, in this case Caribbean, who are expressly responsible for ensuring such assistance is available for passenger,” lawyers for the Authority wrote the Federal Court (original italics).

Regulators acknowledged that airlines and third-party contractors like Servisair Inc. “normally” have obligations to persons with disabilities, but said the Airport Authority was ultimately responsible: “A transportation service provider operating within the federal transportation network cannot escape its statutory responsibilities by relying on a contractor to perform its obligations,” the Agency wrote in a February 23 decision. “When contracting services, a service provider needs to ensure that the contractor performs the necessary level of service.”

“Obviously there is a problem when the consumer is tossed between these various parties,” said Heather Craig-Peddie, Vice President of the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies. “It’s not clear, and there is an issue.”

Craig-Peddie noted most countries have adopted air passengers’ bills of rights that clearly spell out obligations for carriers, and remedies for travellers. The 41st Parliament twice rejected private bills mandating terms of care and compensation for passengers. “We need something that is more clear and concise for the consumer,” Craig-Peddie said.

Bill C-459 An Act Regarding The Rights Of Air Passengers was defeated in the Commons in 2013. The bill would have mandated up to $1,000 compensation to any traveller not told of “any development in respect of their flights that could have a significant impact on their travel plans.”

Donna Jodhan, the passenger who filed the original complaint, earlier won a 2012 Court of Appeal judgment requiring that the Government of Canada make its websites accessible to the vision impaired. Federal attorneys had argued that information was available to the blind by telephone or mail.