Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Canada's transport regulator aims to beef up its passenger rights charter, placing more stringent rules around reimbursement by airlines.
New regulations effective Sept. 8 will require carriers to either refund passengers or rebook them, at the traveller's choice, if a flight is cancelled or significantly delayed, the Canadian Transportation Agency said.
Previously, the passenger rights regime only required refunds for flight disruptions that were within the airline's control, which excluded situations ranging from storms to unscheduled mechanical issues.
"These regulations will close the gap in the Canadian air passenger protection regime highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that even when cancellations and lengthy delays occur that are outside the airline's control, passengers will be protected if the airline cannot complete their itinerary within a reasonable period of time," agency chair France Pegeot said in a release Wednesday.
Thousands of Canadians have faced a slew of long delays and flight cancellations as airlines and security and customs agencies struggle to handle a staffing shortage amid the recent travel surge, a problem that is expected to continue through much of the next two months -- leaving summer travellers without protection from the new rules, which don't kick in until fall.
The regulations will require airlines to offer a rebooking or refund within 30 days if they cannot provide a new reservation within 48 hours of a flight cancellation or "lengthy delay."
Any unused portion of a ticket must be covered, including "any unused add-on service paid for," the regulator said. And a refund must be the same as the original payment method. That means a credit card purchase could not be reimbursed via cash -- or travel voucher, as most Canadian airlines did for nearly a year starting in March 2020 amid hundreds of thousands of cancellations set off by the pandemic.
The new rules don't go far enough for some.
Gabor Lukacs, president of the Air Passenger Rights advocacy group, called the fresh framework a "sham."
He said mandating a refund or rebooking only if the airline cannot secure another a seat on a plane that leaves within two days of the original departure time fails to serve traveller needs.
"Whether you travel for a weekend visit, holiday or for business, travelling 48 hours later would defeat the purpose of your travel," he said in an email.
"Canada is the only western country where airlines might now keep passengers' money for cancelled flights. The United States, European Union, Israel or even Turkey have clear rules that if a flight is cancelled for any reason, the passenger must be refunded -- even if the airline can offer an alternative a few hours later."
Airlines argue the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, which came into force in 2019, already go too far.
Canadian carriers asked a Federal Court of Appeal panel in April 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 -- said the passenger rights charter violates global standards and should be rendered invalid for international flights.
Launched in 2019, the legal action states the regime exceeds the Canadian Transportation Agency's authority. They also allegedly contravene the Montreal Convention, a multilateral treaty, by imposing heftier compensation requirements for flight cancellations or lost baggage.
Ottawa argues that there is no conflict between the passenger protections and the Montreal Convention.
Under the three-year-old 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 in 2020 as pandemic lockdowns and border closures grounded fleets and prompted mass flight cancellations.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
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 mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
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.