An Ontario man is struggling to get around in Chile after Air Canada forgot his customized wheelchair in Toronto.
“Jim cannot move without the wheelchair,” his stepdaughter Wendy Elliott told CTV National News from Toronto. “I think this is just unacceptable.”
Jim Hamilton and Elliott’s mother Kathie Hamilton departed Toronto late Sunday for Santiago, Chile, for a month-long trip that includes a 16-day cruise. Avid travellers, the couple had been looking forward to their first vacation since Hamilton suffered a serious stroke in May 2021, which left him completely paralyzed on his right side. Elliott says the stroke “turned their whole world upside down in an instant.”
“My mom had put a lot of care and preparation into this trip,” Elliott explained. “She actually was working with someone who runs a travel agency that specializes for people with accessibility needs. So, she had really done all of her due diligence to ensure that everything was going to go smoothly.”
Hamilton was taken right to the door of the plane in his wheelchair, which was then supposed to be gate-checked, like when large carry-on luggage is put into the cargo hold right before a flight. But when the couple arrived in Santiago on Monday morning after the 10-and-a-half-hour flight, they learned that the wheelchair was still in Toronto.
“We were the last people off the plane,” Kathie Hamilton told CTV National News from Chile. “And when I stepped out that door and his chair was not there, you have no idea… I mean, it’s his legs.”
Elliott was shocked to hear what happened.
“It’s mindboggling to be perfectly honest,” Elliott added. “I do not understand how when it’s sitting right outside the plane door, and there’s a luggage tag on it, that it’s just left. I just do not understand how that happened.”
The couple is travelling from Santiago to Vina del Mar, a more than 120-kilometre drive, where their cruise departs on Friday. Elliott says her mother is struggling to help Hamilton in and out of the “uncomfortable” temporary wheelchair they were provided at the airport when they arrived. Costing more than $5,000, Hamilton’s wheelchair had been customized for his height, weight and particular mobility needs.
“He needs this chair to get out of bed in the morning, to function throughout the day, to go to the washroom, to have a shower, to get back into bed at night—he needs it for everything,” Kathie Hamilton said. “All I want is his chair. I don’t even want a rental. I want his chair because no rental is going to have all the specifications that his chair had.”
Without it, she says, “it’ll ruin the whole cruise.”
Air Canada has promised that Hamilton’s wheelchair will be on a Tuesday night flight, which will arrive in Santiago on Wednesday morning. Elliott hopes the airline will be able to get the wheelchair to her stepdad in time.
“So, the cruise ship leaves on Friday, which doesn’t give them much time to get this wheelchair from Toronto to Santiago, and then from Santiago to Vina del Mar to them,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s his chair. I don’t know if it’s damaged. I don’t know if it will make the flight, if the flight will arrive on time. I’m not certain.”
This is not the first time Air Canada has had issues delivering a wheelchair. In September 2022, a Toronto woman’s motorized wheelchair was badly damaged on a flight to Israel, and in late 2021, a Toronto man’s wheelchair was sent from Greece to Germany instead of Canada, only to arrive damaged in Toronto five days later. A B.C. woman was also forced to deplane in July 2022 after Air Canada said her motorized wheelchair was too big to put in the cargo hold. Passengers have meanwhile reported waiting for lost baggage for weeks or more, including luggage containing cancer medication. Similar issues have been reported with other airlines in Canada, like WestJet.
Maayan Ziv is a Toronto entrepreneur and disability activist whose $30,000 wheelchair was damaged by Air Canada in September as she travelled to Tel Aviv for an accessibility conference. Broken beyond repair, a replacement only arrived yesterday.
“I was stuck and it took months before any resolution actually resulted,” Ziv told CTV National News on Tuesday. “The reality is that today, people with disabilities and our mobility devices are treated like luggage. There is no distinction between someone losing a suitcase and someone’s health, mobility and independence being literally stripped from them. And that’s what happens when an airline is so negligent and loses or breaks a wheelchair or any other mobility device.”
Ziv says an average of 29 mobility devices are damaged or lost by airlines each day.
“This is happening every day to people everywhere and nothing has been done to make it so that this doesn’t happen anymore,” she said. “The airlines’ approach is to pay away the damage afterwards, and there is zero recognition of the impact that is being had on people’s lives. It’s devastating.”
In a statement to CTV National News, Air Canada confirmed that Hamilton’s wheelchair would be flown to Chile on Tuesday night.
“We fully appreciate the importance of mobility devices to their customers and have processes in place to ensure they travel safely with their owners, and we are reviewing why that did not occur in this case,” a spokesperson said. “We are following up with the customer directly to apologize and address their concerns and, as part of this process, we did immediately offer the customer a $300 goodwill gesture.”
To Elliott, $300 is no consolation for losing an essential mobility aid.
“I’m sorry but Air Canada giving my mother that $300 and just sending her on her way, it’s just not acceptable,” she said. “It’s not a piece of luggage. It’s not an optional accessory for him. It’s not a piece of sports equipment. He requires this for his mobility.”
MONTREAL – One expert says entry-level pay under the tentative deal between Air Canada and its pilots could be a stumbling block ahead of a union vote on the agreement.
Under their current contract, pilots earn far less in their first four years at the company before enjoying a big wage increase starting in year five.
The Air Line Pilots Association had been pushing to scrap the so-called “fixed rate” provision entirely.
But according to a copy of the contract summary obtained by The Canadian Press, the proposed deal announced Sunday would merely cut the four-year period of lower pay to two years.
John Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University, says as many as 2,000 of Air Canada’s roughly 5,200 active pilots may earn entry-level wages following a recent hiring surge.
After the airline averted a strike this week, Gradek says the failure to ditch the pay grade restrictions could prompt pushback from rank-and-file flight crew and jeopardize the deal, which is up for a vote next month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
ROME (AP) — Salvatore “Totò” Schillaci, the Italy striker who was top scorer at its home World Cup in 1990, has died. He was 59.
Schillaci had been hospitalized in Palermo following treatment for colon cancer.
The Palermo Civico hospital said in a statement that Schillacci died on Wednesday morning after being admitted 11 days ago.
Schillaci scored six goals for Italy during the 1990 World Cup. He came on as a substitute during Italy’s opener against Austria, scored in a 1-0 victory, and went on to earn the Golden Boot awarded to the tournament’s top scorer. He only scored one other goal for Italy in his career.
Italian soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina announced that a minute of silence would be held in memory of Schillaci before all games in the country for the rest of the week.
“The uncontrollable celebrations, in which his face was the symbol of shared joy, will remain forever part of Italian soccer (history),” Gravina said. “Totò was a great player, a symbol of tenacious desire and redemption. … His soccer was full of passion. And that fearless spirit made everyone appreciate him and will make him immortal.”
Schillaci also won the Golden Ball award at the 1990 World Cup as the tournament’s top player ahead of Lothar Matthaus and Diego Maradona.
Schillaci played for Messina, Juventus, Inter Milan and Japanese team Jubilo Iwata during his club career.
“You made an entire nation dream during the Magical Nights of Italia ’90,” Inter said on its social media channels.
West Germany won the 1990 World Cup, beating Argentina in the final, while Italy beat England for third place with a winning penalty kick from Schillaci.
Roberto Baggio, who scored Italy’s opening goal in the third-place match, wrote on Instagram, “Ciao my dear friend.”
Having been born and raised in Palermo, the Palermo soccer team announced that it would hold a public viewing of Schillaci at its Renzo Barbera stadium ahead of the funeral, the Gazzetta dello Sport reported.
French soccer player Wissam Ben Yedder will stay free ahead of his trial on charges of sexual assault while intoxicated, one of his lawyers told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Marie Roumiantseva said Ben Yedder will remain under strict judicial supervision after a woman filed a lawsuit for sexual assault earlier this month.
The 34-year-old Ben Yedder, a prolific striker in the French league, was briefly detained then released after the alleged incident in his car on the French Riviera. Ben Yedder had been stopped by police after he first refused to do so. He was then put in a jail cell.
After he was summoned to appear in court on Oct. 15 and placed under judicial supervision, the Nice prosecutor’s office appealed the decision not to remand the player in custody. The investigative chamber of the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence did not grant this request and kept Ben Yedder under judicial supervision.
Ben Yedder attended a hearing Tuesday during which he offered to go to rehab. He has admitted he drove while under the influence of alcohol but has denied any sexual assault.
In a separate legal case last year, Ben Yedder was charged with “rape, attempted rape and sexual assault” over another alleged incident in the south of France.
Ben Yedder has been without a club since his contract with Monaco expired at the end of last season.
