A federal labour board has ordered reinstatement and $25,000 in damages for an angry Transport Canada engineer fired for slapping his supervisor. Spiteful management appeared to go out of its way to needle the man, an adjudicator ruled: “Two cubicle neighbours heard the slap and loud voices”.
Consumer advocates are protesting a federal proposal to restrict complaints against airlines. The Transport Canada report appeared to target groups including one Halifax-based advocate who filed 14 complaints in three years.
“When I look at how bitterly Air Canada and Air Transat have complained about me, I take this as a compliment,” said Dr. Gabor Lukács of the group Air Passenger Rights. “It means I’ve done a good job. How many consumer advocates get targeted to the point they want to change the law?”
The statutory review of the Canada Transportation Act recommended regulations be rewritten to limit complaints to individuals personally affected by service issues. Lukács filed 14 complaints on behalf of passengers denied boarding, refused compensation for delays and other grievances at Air Canada, Air Transat, British Airways, Delta, Porter Airlines, SkyGreece Airlines, Sunwing Airlines Inc., United Air Lines and WestJet.
Lukács has also acted as lead plaintiff in twelve separate court applications against airlines and regulators at the Canadian Transportation Agency. “Those people who were there had absolutely no qualifications or expertise in consumer issues, especially not in air passenger rights,” he said.
The review by former industry minister David Emerson lamented the current complaints-based system at the Agency. “The status quo is untenable,” Emerson wrote in his report Pathways: Connecting Canada’s Transportation System To The World. “It creates higher transaction costs and uncertainty for carriers; a lack of consistency, transparency and predictability for passengers; and an overload of complaints by a very small number of well-meaning and highly motivated individuals seeking to strengthen passenger rights one case at a time, in the absence of a strong industry-wide code.”
Lukács was not cited by name. The Consumers’ Association of Canada said the call for restricting advocacy complaints was surprising. “I’m absolutely astounded to find this,” said Bruce Cran, Association president.
“They want to eliminate the people that do the most for consumers – the consumer advocates and groups that identify problems and take them up and make legal challenges,” Cran said. “It’s a further demonstration of the anti-consumer attitude that the Agency has had.”
“It’s very disconcerting to have this happen,” said Cran. “I’m very impressed that someone like Dr. Lukács is there to take on the airline structure and passenger rights, and now they want to cut that off and they want to cut us off, because we’re the only other group that ever speaks on this issue in any fashion.”
Pathways did recommend that Parliament adopted a uniform Passenger Bill Of Rights mandating compensation for passengers who suffer flight delays, lost luggage, denial of boarding and other service disruptions. MPs have repeatedly rejected the proposal, though the Transportation Agency notes Canada remains the only industrialized country without such a bill.
The Transport Canada report also urged that regulators compel Canadian airlines to disclose confidential data on flight delays and other service issues, similar to a U.S. requirement of the Bureau of Transportation. The Transportation Agency estimates it receives only a fraction of actual complaints – fewer than 400 a year at Air Canada and WestJet, though the airlines carry some 40 million passengers annually.
By Dale Smith 
Federal climate change targets lack a fulsome explanation and regulatory detail, say advocates. An Environment Canada Strategy For Canada 2016-2019 was deemed weak and vague: “There needs to be a lot more detail here”.
Cabinet says Canada should ratify a European trade pact as is, despite worries over the impact on contractors. Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said she could find no valid criticism of the 2013 agreement: “All that remains now is signing”.
One of the nation’s largest food processors faces a Federal Court lawsuit alleging breach of the Competition Act. Kraft Canada Inc. is accused of selling “100% Parmesan cheese” that includes edible cellulose manufactured from wood chips: “Such products are not in fact 100% Parmesan”.
The Commons will vote in principle next week to quash two Conservative labour bills targeted for repeal. The March 7 vote follows debate that saw opposition MPs make 62 separate references to “union bosses”.
Canada will end a culture of “secrecy” with proposals to force disclosure of public records withheld by cabinet and parliamentary institutions, says Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault. The Treasury Board has proposed expanding powers of the Access To Information Act this term: “There’s a lot of secrecy”.
Parliament’s failure to pass DNA privacy legislation has fostered public fear over misuse of genetic testing by employers, says Canada’s chief human rights commissioner. Two bills prohibiting unauthorized use of DNA data lapsed without coming to final votes in 2015: “It is now time to do so”.
Wrecked and abandoned vessels have become a significant environmental risk, says the Canadian Coast Guard. Parliament for the second time in two years has seen introduction of a bill to federalize derelict ships and boats: “We start to incur costs”.
The Prime Minister
wants to sell the world
Canadian resourcefulness.
His way of showing others
we have something
they don’t.
Now he discusses with his cabinet
– and the provinces –
how best to ship this unique commodity:
down south through Keystone XL,
westward through the Northern Gateway,
or to the Atlantic Provinces through the Energy East
pipeline.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Parliament should enact a first-ever passenger bill of rights for air travellers, says a cabinet-commissioned report. Advisors also urged that airlines be compelled to disclose confidential data on flight delays, lost luggage, denial of boarding and other service complaints: “Let’s get on with it”.
Cabinet should privatize federally-regulated airports and ease foreign ownership rules on airlines, says a Transport Canada review. The two-year study also proposed the government phase out millions in airport rents: “Why am I paying so much for my airline ticket? Why can’t I get more competition?”
Federally-regulated employers would be fined $10,000 a day for hiring replacement workers in a strike or lockout under a New Democrat bill introduced in the Commons. The bill’s sponsor, a former postal worker, said the current law is unfair: “Prove the tone in Ottawa has really changed”.
VIA Rail should strip passenger subsidies outside its core business in Ontario and Québec, effectively doubling fares on its iconic Canadian transcontinental service, says a federal report. The proposal followed an admission from the CEO that trains now run later than ever: “This is just not attractive to passengers”.
A bill mandating first-ever national standards on disposal of mercury-laden light bulbs has been introduced in the Commons. The measure comes three years after Canada pledged to reduce mercury emissions: “We probably should have had a plan”.
