Air Canada is Hostile to Disabled People

Asserting your rights is not allowed on this airline.

I’ve written about the challenges disabled people face when traveling by air numerous times, but these horror stories never seem to stop coming. Every week seems to bring a new case of disabled people having their equipment lost or destroyed, being injured, or just being violated by the industry. These problems plague the entire airline industry, but they seem to predictably involve one of two airlines every time: United or Air Canada.

Air Canada is well known for breaking wheelchairs, but they’ve also been criticized for mistreating disabled people in other ways. From humiliating disabled people to straight up putting their chairs on the wrong plane, it’s gotten to the point where a Twitter thread calling them out has six different stories over the course of a year. And these are just the stories that made headlines and that this lawyer was aware of. Other users added their own experiences in the replies.

I first heard of Kadey Schultz as disability advocate Maayan Ziv’s legal representation after Ziv’s wheelchair was destroyed by Air Canada despite literally being wrapped in bubble wrap. Air Canada then fought her on paying for its repairs. Having a disabled son herself, Schultz has made quite the career fighting for disability rights.

When I saw another case of a disabled person being treated badly by Air Canada, I wasn’t surprised. What was surprising, however, was that Schultz was involved yet again, but this time her son was the one mistreated. I really wanted to highlight this story because not only is it yet another example of Air Canada mistreating disabled people, but I think this story more than any other proves there’s nothing disabled people can do to prevent this treatment.

Returning from a vacation to the Grand Canyon with her family, Schultz did everything you’re supposed to do. She contacted the airline ahead of time to inform them of her son Emery’s needs. She provided the dimensions of his folding wheelchair, confirming that it could be stored in the onboard closet. She printed the confirmation email and brought it with her to the airport.

And yet, it didn’t matter.

Schultz and her family were told that Emery’s chair was too big to go in the onboard closet. Despite her confirmation email, the staff was adamant and refused to look at the document Schultz had.

One flight attendant, however, gave another reason that Emery’s chair couldn’t be put in the closet: her luggage was already in said closet. On flights to and from the United States, passengers’ mobility aids are legally entitled to this closet space. Many flight attendants don’t know of or blatantly ignore this law.

Schultz was very familiar with this legal requirement, which she tried to explain to the flight attendant. She tried to explain that, per her email, this woman’s superiors had already agreed that Emery’s wheelchair could be stored in the onboard closet. The flight attendant refused to budge.

Since the flight attendant refused to read the email, Schultz began reading it out loud. This was enough to get her thrown off the flight.

Her seventeen-year-old daughter then asked the flight attendant for her last name so they could file a complaint. The flight attendant’s first name, Katie, was visible, but she was purposely concealing her name tag. This prevented Schultz’ family from seeing what her last name was. Apparently, this was enough to get this teenager thrown off the flight as well.

At this point, the staff tried to just throw the whole family off the plane. Schultz begged for her son to be allowed to fly home, particularly because the staff didn’t know how long it would be until they could be put on another flight and Emery takes medication for his heart. Not wanting to deal with this teenager potentially running out of meds, the staff agreed to let Emery and his dad stay on the flight.

Not allowed to say goodbye to the other half of her family, Schultz was barely able to convince staff to return her and her daughter’s bags, which contained their own medicines. Schultz spent Emery’s whole flight worrying about his heart, as the stress of this whole ordeal combined with the high altitude can be dangerous. Fortunately, Emery and his dad made it safely back to Toronto.

Schultz tried desperately to get in touch with a higher up at Air Canada. The new flight her and her daughter were put on was delayed and they were desperate to get home in time for Emery’s planned sixteenth birthday party. Given that Emery has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a disease with an average lifespan of early to mid twenties, missing a birthday isn’t a trivial thing. On top of that, the situation had caused really bad anxiety for her daughter, and they weren’t rebooked to sit together.

Air Canada was predictably unhelpful. Their customer support chat agent kept directing Schultz to fill out a form requesting help despite them being well aware of the situation, and she couldn’t get a person to just speak to her over the phone.

It was nearly 48 hours after being kicked off the plane before Air Canada finally called Schultz.

Luckily, the family was reunited in time for Emery’s birthday party; however, the battle to hold Air Canada accountable has only just begun. Knowing Kadey Schultz, it won’t be a short one for Air Canada.

In the sea of airline horror stories, I think this one is particularly important to share because it shows that nothing disabled people and their travel companions can do will be enough to protect them from these airlines. When these stories come out, there’s often a lot victim blaming if the disabled person didn’t do everything perfectly. Didn’t announce your disability ahead of time? Told them you have a wheelchair but didn’t provide dimensions? Didn’t bring the written proof that you can travel like a human? It’s kind of your fault then.

The Schultz family did everything right and it just didn’t matter. Airlines will still treat us like crap because they don’t care. Plain and simple.

As of writing, they’re still being treated like crap. Unsurprising, but disappointing.

Ironically, only a couple days after Schultz and her daughter were kicked off their flight, another story of Air Canada mistreating a disabled passenger broke. Who was the passenger? Maayan Ziv, the woman Schultz represented against Air Canada. No, I’m not joking.

Ziv was returning from a business trip in Austin when she was told by a flight attendant that her wheelchair was a “dangerous good” and couldn’t be stored in the cabin. Despite being legally entitled to store her chair in this closet as long as its lithium-ion batteries are disconnected, which Ziv claims they were, the flight attendant said she wasn’t going to argue about this. Ziv’s chair was going in the cargo hold. And yes, the onboard closet just happened to be holding the flight attendant’s belongings.

When Ziv tried to explain that her chair had been broken in the past, she was told that the airline would just pay for any damages. Given that she was still dealing with the repercussions of the last time her chair was broken, this statement was laughable.

In response to the situation, Air Canada provided Narcity Toronto a statement where they claimed that the law Ziv cited only applied to manual wheelchairs, which is blatantly false. Folding power wheelchairs are also covered as long as their batteries are disconnected.

I’d also like to point out that Air Canada’s “dangerous good” rule directly contradicts the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s rules regarding lithium-ion batteries. The FAA doesn’t allow these batteries to be put in checked bags. They can only travel in carry-ons IN THE CABIN.

Air Canada also really wanted Narcity Toronto to know that Ziv’s chair made it safely to her destination. I guess they wanted a cookie for not breaking her wheelchair again.

Air Canada has earned a reputation as one of the worst airlines for disabled people to travel on. Honestly, the only nice thing I can think of to say about them is that they haven’t literally killed somebody (cough cough…United). Given how much Canadians have to rely on this airline, they need to be held accountable for the way they treat disabled people and their travel companions.

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