Air Canada is apologizing for a situation that saw nearly three dozen teenagers from Conception Bay North, along with their five adult chaperones, stranded for three days in Montreal, dashing their hopes of visiting New York City.
The travel company that arranged the tour, meanwhile, is not commenting.
But despite the unpleasant experience, the students remain determined to one day visit the city that’s famous for its arts scene and iconic landmarks.
In a statement to CBC News, an unnamed Air Canada spokesperson blamed unfavourable weather conditions and a shortage of air crew for what the airline described as a regrettable situation.
And since most flights are booked because of the busy summer travel season, the airline said its ability to rebook customers following a flight cancellation is limited, especially for large groups.
“As a result, we were unable to transport these customers as planned and we have apologized for not providing our normal levels of customer service,” the statement reads.
Stress and confusion
The 34 students — all 14 and 15 years old — from Amalgamated Academy in Bay Roberts and Holy Redeemer in Spaniard’s Bay departed St. John’s airport on an Air Canada flight on Saturday. They were accompanied by five teacher chaperones from their schools.
The educational tour was organized by a company called Brightspark by WorldStrides. The trip was a year in the making, and came with a price tag of nearly $4,000 per student.
As the minutes stretched into hours at the airport in Montreal, there was not much for students to do but lay on the floor and nap. (Submitted by Stephanie Gifford)
New York City is one of the most famous cities in the world, and the four-day itinerary included everything from a Broadway musical and shopping to visits to landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center.
The plan was the fly to Montreal, and connect with another flight to New York.
But a dream end-of-school-year adventure turned into three days and two nights of stress, confusion and discomfort, said Emma Gifford of Port de Grave, one of the students on the trip.
“It was very challenging because we were all there without our parents. For a lot of us it was our first time travelling without our parents,” she said.
A cascade of problems
After landing in Montreal, the tour group was forced to wait on the plane for two hours before learning their connecting flight to New York was cancelled.
That began a series of problems that included long waits at the airport terminal, late-night and early morning taxi rides to and from a nearby hotel, eating food from vending machines and growing increasingly fatigued and frustrated as delays piled on top of each other.
It was a challenging introduction to air travel for students like Kairah March of Bareneed.
“It was kind of disappointing that the first time leaving Newfoundland, I spent most of the time in an airport. On an airport floor. It was pretty bad,” said March.
Some of the 34 Conception Bay North teens who saw their New York City dream vacation dashed this week are pictured here in Port de Grave. They are, front, left to right: Emma Gifford and Ally Bennett; back, Skylar Newell, Emily Smith, Sarah Holmes, Kairah March, Michela Hawco and Alexa Burton. (Terry Roberts/CBC)
On Sunday, word came down that the trip to New York was cancelled. It was a heartbreaking outcome for students who used the trip as motivation as they prepared for and wrote their year-end exams.
‘We just wanted to go home’
But that wasn’t the end of their travel turmoil. The students had to endure several more delays and hours of uncertainty before they finally arrived back at St. John’s International Airport Monday night.
“I felt helpless, and I know a lot of us did as well. It was fearful. We just wanted to go home,” said student Sarah Holmes.
While the students sweated it out in the humidity and smoke-filled air of Montreal, where wildfires in northern Quebec had dramatically lowered the air quality, parents back home in Newfoundland were scrambling for answers.
“Brightspark was saying you need to call Air Canada. And when we reach out to Air Canada, Air Canada said you need to talk to Brightspark. So we had both companies putting the liabilities over to somebody else,” said Stephanie Gifford, Emma’s mother.
“From Saturday when she left, right up until Monday night, I didn’t know how she was getting home, didn’t know where she was sleeping in the evenings, didn’t know how she was eating.”
Some parents were preparing to board a plane and fly to Montreal, she said.
“(Emma) was very upset. She had nose bleeds. She was feeling sick. I know it’s embarrassing for her now. But she just wanted her mom. She wanted her family. She just wanted to be home and not on a floor in an airport.”
Brightspark says Air Canada ‘not much help’
A message to parents from Brightspark, which was obtained by CBC News, cited “unforeseen circumstances” for the travel turbulence. But the company also singled out Air Canada for criticism, saying the airline “was not much help in making alternate arrangements for the group.”
The message said “Brightspark did the best we could on short notice, hampered by (a) provincial holiday (Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day) on the weekend, to first and foremost ensure the safety of the students.”
Air Canada and Brightspark covered the cost of hotel accommodations, while Air Canada also provided daily food vouchers to the group. Brightspark also chartered a bus on Monday to transport the group from the hotel to a morning meal, to a shopping mall, and then to the airport.
The students from the Bay Roberts and Spaniard’s Bay area spent long days at the Montreal airport, trying to make the best of a challenging situation, instead of enjoying a dream trip to New York City. (Submitted by Stephanie Gifford)
The breakfast was the first warm meal the students ate since Saturday morning, said Stephanie Gifford.
The students credit their chaperones for helping make the situation bearable, and note that the adversity helped solidify old and new friendships.
“I’m a lot closer to each and every one of them, because we spent a lot of time together,” said Ally Bennett of North River.
Many of the students are involved in the drama program at their schools, which is largely why they were so drawn to Broadway’s famous theatres.
Meanwhile, the travellers were insured, but it’s not yet clear how much of their expenses will be refunded.
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.
