'We do make mistakes': Air Canada CEO answers for airline's 'shocking' accessibility services

Lawmakers took Air Canada’s CEO to task on Monday over “shocking” and failures to accommodate passengers living with disabilities. At a House of Commons committee hearing on services for Canadians with disabilities, CE Michael Rousseau faced a barrage of questions over reports of passenger mistreatment in the past year. Conservative vice-chair Tracy Gray cited several incidents she deemed shocking: “An Air Canada passenger had a lift fall on her head and her ventilator was disconnected; Air Canada leaving Canada’s own chief accessibility officer’s wheelchair behind on a cross-Canada flight … and a man was dropped and injured when Air Canada staff didn’t use a lift as requested.” In August, a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off of an airplane due to a lack of help, a situation Bloc Quebecois MP Louise Chabot called “scandalous.” Asked by NDP disability inclusion critic Bonita Zarrillo whether he’d ever had to crawl down the aisle or exit on a catering cart _ in reference to recent stories — he replied, “No, of course not.” “We do make mistakes,” he said. Rousseau pointed to an expedited accessibility scheme announced in November along with new measures to improve the travel experience for hundreds of thousands of passengers living with a disability. Last week, the carrier formed an advisory committee made up of customers with disabilities and laid out a program where a lanyard worn by travellers indicates to staff they may need assistance. “The vast majority of customers requesting accessibility help from Air Canada are having a good experience. There are exceptions. We take responsibility for those exceptions,” Rousseau said.<br/>