Air Canada leaves federal chief accessibility officer stranded without wheelchair
Air Canada is under fire and investigating its “service lapse” after leaving a Vancouver-bound passenger’s wheelchair in Toronto.
“Well. @AirCanada left my chair in Toronto,” Canada’s chief accessibility officer (CAO), Stephanie Cadieux, posted on X on Saturday. “I’m now without my essential equipment. Independence taken away. I’m furious. Unacceptable.”
A photo showing Cadieux waiting at an Air Canada counter accompanies the post.
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
According to an official statement published on Monday morning, Cadieux had landed in Vancouver on Friday to find out her wheelchair had been left behind in Toronto.
“This was immensely frustrating and dehumanizing – and I was furious,” she said, adding that she has received an overwhelming response since posting about it.
“While I’m glad I’ve been able to draw attention to this issue, I don’t want the continued focus to be on my experience. Not surprisingly to me, many of the responses to my tweet were from people sharing that the same thing had happened to them, with no quick resolution,” Cadieux said.
She stressed that her position as Canada’s CAO should not influence her flight experiences and that every person with a disability who entrusts their wheelchair to an airline should expect and be granted the same service as “we are all customers.”
Last year, an Australian woman shared that she had to crawl out of a plane after being denied a complimentary aisle wheelchair.
In September 2022, Maayan Ziv posted an emotional video stating that Air Canada broke her wheelchair. In March this year, Ziv complained that the carrier refused to store her wheelchair in the cabin.
From 2009 to 2022, Cadieux served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. In May 2022, she started her term as Canada’s first CAO.
The role requires her to travel a lot, and she says her wheelchair has been damaged several times over the past year alone.
“I want everyone to understand that when a person’s wheelchair is lost, so is their independence, safety, mobility, and dignity,” she noted. “Yet, airlines do not treat these pieces of medical equipment as the essential extensions of individual’s bodies that they are. The appropriate care and attention is not given, and the result is situations like the one that happened to me on Friday.”
She further talked about how people with disabilities are left to hold airlines accountable on their own “often with little to no success” when such neglect is demonstrated.
As the federal CAO, Cadieux says she will continue conversing with the airlines and the air travel sector and push for accessible air travel solutions for everyone.
“It needs to change now,” she concluded.
Air Canada’s response
Daily Hive contacted Air Canada on Saturday, who said that Cadieux’s wheelchair had arrived that morning and was being delivered to her.
“We are in contact with her and will discuss her concerns and apologize for this very upsetting situation, as we recognize mobility devices are vital to their users,” Air Canada told us over email.
“We are still investigating how this serious service lapse occurred, including looking for additional measures we can implement to prevent such situations in the future.”
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