A Canadian senator’s wife, who made headlines around the world when she was arrested for causing a disturbance aboard an Air Canada flight this summer, says the incident was overblown.
Maygan Sensenberger, 23, and her husband Sen. Rod Zimmer, 69, told CTV’s Power Play Tuesday that what took place aboard the August flight to Saskatoon was a “non-issue.”
“You know what? It was a joke. We were joking,” Zimmer said of the incident without elaborating.
Sensenberger was arrested after some passengers on that flight reported that she was fighting with Zimmer and threatening to slit his throat.
Others, however, said that Sensenberger became upset after Zimmer, a cancer survivor, began experiencing tightness in his chest.
Sensenberger pleaded guilty last month to causing a disturbance on a plane. More serious charges of uttering threats and endangering the safety of an aircraft were dropped.
She said it was disheartening to read comments online from “people who don’t know me (who) decided to judge me and say horrible, disgusting things on the Internet.”
“Everything that was put online was completely fabricated,” she said.
Sensenberger also said she was surprised to see stories about her arrest make the rounds internationally.
“People need to get lives,” she said.
The couple is now back in Ottawa and Sensenberger said she’s trying her hand at acting. She’s been cast in a short film as the head of an all-female government.
Zimmer said he supports his wife “100 per cent.”
“I always say when she walks into a room, either in fashion or in movies, I call Ontario Hydro, tell them to turn the power off because she brightens up everything…and she is my hero,” he said.
Sensenberger supported his wife throughout the court proceedings and her lawyers insisted that he never felt threatened by her.
