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.
Consumer rights advocates are demanding Air Canada provide compensation to many of the hundreds of thousands of passengers whose summer flights it cancelled - but whether the airline plans to concede remains up in the air.
Canada's largest carrier said Wednesday night it will cut more than 15 per cent of its departures in July and August as the country's flight network sags under an overwhelming travel resurgence.
The move will see more than 9,500 flights, or 154 per day on average, dropped from the airline's schedule - already operating at just 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. The flights link mainly to the airline's Toronto and Montreal hubs, and run along domestic or Canada-U.S. routes. No international flights other than those to the United States were among the cull.
“This Canada Day weekend will be difficult,” CEO Michael Rousseau told employees in a memo dated Thursday and obtained by The Canadian Press.
“I wish I could promise you that the measures we are taking will mean an easy summer ahead. While they will certainly provide some relief, it will take time and effort and we likely won't see the full benefit until the latter part of July.”
Sylvie De Bellefeuille, a lawyer with Quebec-based advocacy group Option consommateurs, says many customers are “absolutely” owed compensation under Canada's passenger rights charter.
The Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), which took force in 2019, require compensation - distinct from refunds - of between $400 and $1,000 for a cancellation or significant delay that is “within the carrier's control,” should the traveller opt to reject the rebooking, and in some cases when they accept it.
“I believe it is the decision of Air Canada to cancel the flights,” De Bellefeuille said. “Therefore people should have a right of compensation.”
While Rousseau apologized for cancellations and “customer service shortfalls,” the CEO also said in an email to travellers the schedule reduction stemmed from strains on the “global aviation system” - which falls outside Air Canada's control - calling them “unprecedented and unforeseen.”
Gabor Lukacs, president of the Air Passenger Rights advocacy group, said airlines have “oversold their capacity” in a bid to compensate for two years of battered bottom lines.
“Even if there were physical seats available on the aircraft, there wasn't a pilot, there wasn't a flight attendant, there weren't gate agents,” he said, adding that a dearth of federal security and customs officers posed further challenges.
“These are cancellations that are within the carrier's control ... Airlines may claim otherwise, but those claims hold no water.”
Air Canada said in an email that customers are notified of cancellations automatically, “and this process is underway.”
“Some we are able to rebook immediately while for others we will continue to search for alternatives and will advise them if options become available,” said spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick.
Customers can request a refund at any time, he said.
Air Canada did not answer questions around whether the schedule slim-down was within its control, stating that it “will meet its obligations under APPR.”
The sudden rollback stands in contrast to the approach of WestJet Airlines Ltd., whose chief executive told The Canadian Press it gradually scaled back its summer schedule through the spring to land at 32 per cent fewer trips in and out of Toronto's Pearson airport in July than in 2019.
Air Canada's stock fell six per cent or $1.03 to close at $16.04 on Thursday, deepening a decline from more than $21 per share at the start of the month.
Jacques Roy, a professor of transport management at HEC Montreal business school, said the Montreal-based company's revenues will take a hit, even if consolidating passengers on fewer flights boosts efficiency.
“This is definitely not good news for Air Canada. It's their peak season - that's the most lucrative quarter of the year, and for the past three years it's been negative,” he said.
At least 400,000 passengers will likely be affected, he added.
Cathy Gray booked a family trip to Scotland months ago, and has already seen her flight rescheduled once.
“We have booked and paid for a car rental and accommodation and are dreading what we anticipate will happen with our August-September flights schedules and the domino effect on our plans,” she said.
“All of this could have been avoided had the airlines not been so greedy. It's a disgrace.”
The volume of passenger angst was evident on Air Canada's website, which was flooded with travellers' checking their summer flight status.
“We are currently experiencing technical issues that may prevent you from retrieving your booking online,” stated an alert at the top of the airline's homepage posted Wednesday night.
Under federal regulations, passengers are owed alternate travel arrangements or a refund - traveller's choice - if they were informed more than two weeks in advance that their flight was cancelled or delayed by three hours or more for reasons within the carrier's control.
If the trip was cancelled within 14 days or less, passengers are owed $1,000 for a cancellation or delay of nine hours or more, and between $400 and $700 for delays of three to nine hours.
No matter how long the notice, a passenger who opts to reject a rebooking should receive $400 in compensation, on top of a refund.
The airline must aim to rebook passengers on a flight on its network that takes off within nine hours of the original departure time. If it can't, it must offer to book them on another airline network “as soon as feasible,” free of charge, according to the passenger rights charter.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 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.
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.
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.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
A delegation of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was in Cairo on Saturday as Egyptian state media reported "noticeable progress" in ongoing cease-fire talks with Israel while an Israeli official downplayed the prospects for a full end to the war.
Saing Chhoeun was locked out of his Charlotte, N.C., home on Monday as law enforcement with high-powered rifles descended into his yard and garage, using a car as a shield as they were met with a shower of gunfire from the direction of his neighbor's house.
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.
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.