Canadians hoping to travel to Saudi Arabia for the umrah pilgrimage are scrambling to curb their losses after the kingdom suddenly suspended entry for religious pilgrims over mounting coronavirus concerns, leaving travellers grounded and out thousands of dollars.
On Thursday, Saudi Arabia moved to temporarily halt entry into the kingdom, home to two of Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the suspensions were temporary but provided no time frame for their expiry. It was unclear if the major pilgrimage, hajj, set to begin in July, will also be impacted.
And as news of the suspensions makes waves, phones have been ringing non-stop at travel agencies specializing in umrah packages, with customers worried the money spent on flights, hotels and tour bookings will disappear as a result.
“It’s a panic situation,” said Chaudhry Iqbal of Bismillah Travel and Tours in Mississauga, Ont.
Most customers looking to perform the umrah pilgrimage book in groups months in advance, their packages largely non-refundable, Iqbal explained.
Travellers who left before suspension also affected
“We are really in a limbo right now,” said Faisal Chohan of the Toronto-based World Ways Travel. But while the news is still fresh, Chohan says airlines have said little about whether they’ll take any steps to help customers get their funds back.
“It’s been a really crazy influx of calls from not only people who are travelling from here, but also people who have already travelled and are in transit,” he said.
Some travellers who booked with Chohan left from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport just hours before the suspension. By the time it was announced, they were already in flight or at their connecting destinations, where they were denied boarding their Saudi-bound flights.
Yusuf Bhatia and his wife are among them.
Some people spend years saving for such a trip.– Yusuf Bhatia
The pair booked their trip more than two months ago and left from Toronto on Wednesday — just before the suspension was announced. But they were nevertheless turned around in Istanbul, losing thousands of dollars in the process.
Thirty minutes before his flight was supposed to leave Istanbul for Jeddah, Bhatia says they were called to the desk and told Saudi Arabia had cancelled their umrah visas. Bhatia said he tried to volunteer a medical test to show he and his wife were virus-free, but it was to no avail.
‘No option but to return’
“We had no option but to return back,” he said.
“Some people spend years saving for such a trip with their family,” Bhatia told CBC News. “I wish they would allow the people who already left home and were in transit, or at least reimburse their hotel and travel.”
“He’s worked so hard, and just in that one shot he’s lost that $4,500,” said Chohan.
Some travellers who booked with World Ways Travel in Toronto left just hours before the suspension. By the time it was announced, they were already in flight or at their connecting destinations, where they were denied boarding their Saudi-bound flights. (World Ways Travel)
CBC News tried to contact Saudi officials for comment, but did not receive a response.
Another family with four children is stuck in Dhaka.
“He just got there today and he’s been calling me since morning as well,” Chohan said. That family travelled with Air Canada from Toronto to London. From there, they were supposed to take a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight to Jeddah and later to Dhaka. Instead they were sent straight to Dhaka.
Chohan said the majority of his customers’ bookings are through Air Canada, and said he was still awaiting word from the airline about reimbursing customers.
In a statement, Air Canada told CBC News it has goodwill policies allowing customers travelling to and from China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Italy to rebook their trips, but there is no such arrangement for Saudi Arabia.
“We continue to monitor this situation closely and will update policies as warranted,” the airline said.
Some will be ‘out of pocket’
Under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, flight cancellations or delays based primarily on catastrophes or public health emergencies may be considered outside an airline’s control, the Canadian Transportation Agency told CBC News. If an airline’s decision is based primarily on commercial concerns, for example, that would count as within its control.
“Each situation would have to be assessed on its own merits,” the agency said in a statement.
The Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO) recommends travellers affected by the kingdom’s decision contact their travel agencies, provided they have booked with one.
Customers may be able to get back some of their money if they have trip cancellation or interruption insurance through their credit card or purchased it separately, or if the airline provides rebooking options, TICO’s president and CEO Richard Smart told CBC News.
“There may be some consumers that in the end are out of pocket,” Smart said.
TICO’s own compensation fund does not apply to travellers in this situation, Smart said; it’s limited to travellers whose plans are affected by an Ontario travel agency, tour operator, airline or cruise going bankrupt.
For now, Chohan says more than 100 customers at his agency alone will have their trips cancelled because of the suspension.
Where airlines and hotels offer refunds, Chohan says, those funds will be returned to the customers. “But those that don’t, we are also stuck,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bhatia isays he and his wife were put up in a hotel at no charge while they awaited their flight back to Canada.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
