Equipment failure leaves woman with MS stranded at Montreal airport

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities says it's shocked by the treatment of an Air Canada passenger with mobility issues who was left stranded at the Montreal airport.

The P.E.I. woman, who has multiple sclerosis, was reportedly not allowed to board her flight to Charlottetown because a special chair Air Canada uses to disembark passengers with major mobility issues was out of order.

"I'm shocked, horrified and saddened that the airline didn't realize that something that's been around since the 1970s at least was not available in Charlottetown," says Pat Danforth, chair of the council's transportation board.

The women, who wished not to be identified, told the P.E.I. Council of People with Disabilities that she had to call her daughter in Toronto, who drove to Montreal to pick her up from the airport and drove her back to Toronto.

The woman then took a flight with another airline to Charlottetown.

Air Canada said the airline could not comment on the case and it's continuing to investigate the claims.

However, the airline did confirm that the chair that was needed to help the woman disembark in Charlottetown – known as the Washington chair – has been out of order for a few weeks.  

Danforth said it's common for airlines to borrow other airlines’ boarding chairs when necessary.

"There were lots of alternatives out there," Danforth told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday. "The alternative that this airline chose, which was not to let this woman go home, is sad and as far as I can tell it's a violation of the Canadian Transportation Act."

Under the act, Danforth said Canadians who feel that their rights have been violated can file a complaint. Although, she said few Canadians often take that course of action.

"Individuals get angry, they get upset, but they do not file complaints because they don't want to make waves," she said.

Danforth pointed to a Supreme Court case involving Via Rail in which the court ruled that there should be no new barriers for individuals with disabilities.

"The Charlottetown airport is a small airport. If one airline doesn’t have a piece of equipment, often it can borrow a piece," she said. "Instead a woman was inconvenienced, she was humiliated and she was left in a very vulnerable position not being able to go home."