Air Canada walks back new seat selection policy change after backlash
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
“Kids are being massacred in their schools, literally … their heads are being decapitated because of the power of an assault bullet, (which) is unlike anything, no other weapon,” gun violence prevention activist Samuel Schwartz told CTV News on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
“It’s gotten to the point now where it’s infringing on our right to live,” he told CTV News.
Schwartz, 19, is the organizer of a sit-in on Senate’s doorstep that began earlier this week, with plans to stay until June 12 or longer.
The protest comprises survivors of gun violence and grieving families of shooting victims from across the U.S., who are demanding change in the country where the leading cause of death for children and young adults is guns.
“None of us are safe, wherever we go, I don’t understand how more people aren’t joining this fight before it touches their lives,” says Kim Rubio, whose 10-year-old daughter Lexi was gunned down in Uvalde, Texas a year ago.
Their demand is for Congress to hold a federal vote to ban assault-style weapons, the kind used in mass shootings at schools in Uvalde, Sandy Hook, and Parkland, Fla.
U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law the first gun control bill in 30 years last June. And after mass shootings such as the ones in Uvalde and Buffalo, the president called on Congress to once again ban assault weapons with high capacity magazines - an earlier federal ban had lapsed in 2004. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not brought legislation to the floor because he can’t get the votes for a ban to pass.
The survivors want a vote anyway, to know who is for and who opposes a ban on this weapon of war.
Schwartz, 19, has been lobbying for change since his cousin Alex was murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. five years ago.
“I had a conversation with someone and they said that they look for an exit sign whenever they go into a new place which is just heartbreaking, because that's not the country that I want to live in,” said Schwartz, of Ban Assault Weapons NOW, who has since moved from Florida to Boston where gun laws are tougher.
While some sympathetic lawmakers stopped at the sit-in, signing their petition and even showing support on social media, it’s a tough sell politically in a divided government.
"They deserve for their own safety to have a vote in Congress. Frankly, we look at our friends to the north, as you know, leading by example on how you protect your own people from gun violence,” said Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, of California.
Watch the full report from CTV News’ Washington Bureau Chief Joy Malbon by clicking on the video at the top of this article.
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
An ongoing municipal strike, court battles and revolt by half of council has prompted the province to oust the mayor and council in Black River-Matheson.
Three officers on a U.S. Marshals Task Force serving a warrant for a felon wanted for possessing a firearm were killed and five other officers were wounded in a shootout Monday at a North Carolina home, police said.
A Calgary elementary school principal has been charged with possession of child pornography, authorities announced Monday.
The Vancouver Island Health Authority is downplaying what staff describe as a cockroach infestation in a medical unit of Saanich Peninsula Hospital.
Toronto police say 12 people are facing a combined 102 charges in connection with an investigation into a major credit fraud scheme.
One of the winners of a historic US$1.3 billion Powerball jackpot last month is an immigrant from Laos who has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.
Britney Spears and her father Jamie Spears will avoid what could have been a long, ugly and revealing trial with a settlement of the lingering issues in the court conservatorship that controlled her life and financial decisions for nearly 14 years.
The clock is ticking ahead of the deadline to file a 2023 income tax return. A personal finance expert explains why you should get them done -- even if you owe more than you can pay.
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.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.