Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Canadian airlines asked a Federal Court of Appeal panel Wednesday to quash rules that bolster compensation for passengers subjected to delayed flights and damaged luggage.
Air Canada and Porter Airlines Inc., along with 16 other appellants that include the International Air Transport Association - IATA has about 290 member airlines - argue that the country's three-year-old passenger rights charter violates global standards and should be rendered invalid for international flights.
Launched in 2019, the legal action states the new provisions exceed the Canadian Transportation Agency's authority. They also contravene the Montreal Convention, a multilateral treaty, by imposing heftier compensation requirements for flight cancellations or lost baggage. For example, the rules demand higher damages based on the length of a delay and regardless of “the actual damage sustained by each individual passenger,” according to the appellants.
An earlier filing said nullifying the regulations “would avoid the confusion to passengers” who could be subject to travel regimes from multiple jurisdictions on flights abroad.
“Justices, the solution cannot be for state parties to individually chip away at the Montreal Convention by adopting piecemeal domestic solutions that depart from the principles accepted by all state parties,” appellant lawyer Pierre Bienvenu told the panel.
Under the federal rules, passengers have to be compensated up to $2,400 if they were denied boarding - so-called flight bumping - because a trip was overbooked, and receive up to $2,100 for lost or damaged luggage. Delays and other payments for cancelled flights warrant compensation of up to $1,000.
The issue came to the forefront after a 2017 incident in which two Montreal-bound Air Transat jets were diverted to Ottawa because of bad weather and held on the tarmac for up to six hours, leading some passengers to call 911 for rescue.
It took on renewed relevance to thousands of Canadians starting in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions grounded fleets and prompted mass flight cancellations.
The hearings, which pit airlines against the federal government and the Canadian Transportation Agency, are slated to run Wednesday and Thursday.
Ottawa argues that there is no conflict between the passenger protections and the Montreal Convention.
More than 70 signatories to the treaty have adopted schemes around compensation for cancellations, delays and denied boarding.
“In the European Union, a regime similar to the regulations has been in force since 2004 and the Court of Justice of the European Union (the CJEU) has declared it compatible with the Montreal Convention, despite challenges from the airline industry,” the attorney general writes in the factum.
“No regime analogous to the regulations has been invalidated on the ground of incompatibility with the Montreal Convention.”
In 2020, the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed an attempt by airlines to freeze the country's new passenger bill of rights until an appeal of the regulations was heard.
Air Passenger Rights president Gabor Lukacs, an intervener on the case, argues that compensation rules on flights into and out of the country are entirely Canada's right.
“As part of its sovereignty, Canada has the freedom to decide what conditions it attaches in exchange for the privilege to operate airlines or commercial flights to and from Canada,” he said in a phone interview.
“This appeal, I view it as an attack in disguise on the validity of the entire Canadian regulatory scheme for transportation of passengers to and from Canada.”
He and other consumer advocates also say the rules should go further, arguing that airlines' exemption from compensating customers in situations “outside of the airline's control” uses too broad a definition and amounts to a loophole.
The regulations impose no obligation on airlines to pay customers for delays or cancellations if they were caused by mechanical problems discovered in day-to-day maintenance or a pre-flight check, rather than during scheduled maintenance - more thorough inspections required after 100 hours cumulatively in the air.
AirHelp, a Berlin-based passenger rights company, has said the exemptions for weather or mechanical malfunctions fail to encourage airlines to avoid “so-called undiscovered issues” and allows them to sidestep compensation by pointing to malfunctions on the tarmac.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2022.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.