The head of Amnesty International Canada is accusing Air Canada of racism and discrimination after she was denied boarding a flight to Mexico.
Ketty Nivyabandi, who is a permanent resident of Canada with official refugee status, was due to depart from the Ottawa International Airport on Thursday afternoon, but said when she went to check in, the Air Canada agent became confused by her travel documents. Nivyabandi said she was travelling to Mexico for a work conference.
I’m not the only one who has experienced this, it’s a pattern.– Ketty Nivyabandi
Originally from Burundi, Nivyabandi uses a government-issued refugee travel document in lieu of a Canadian passport when she travels. According to the Canadian government, these documents are sufficient evidence of an individual’s immigration status and should allow them to travel outside the country.
According to Nivyabandi, however, the first agent she dealt with didn’t appear aware of that.
“He seemed to have never seen a travel document of the sort,” she said.
About an hour and a half later, after speaking with the agent, his manager and then another agent on the phone, Nivyabandi said she was denied boarding. Their explanation — that she was missing a visa to enter Mexico.
Nivyabandi said there’s no such visa requirement for permanent residents or refugees living in Canada. She said none of this was an issue when she took the same flight with the same airline back in October.
“I was simply stunned when I was told that I couldn’t board and my luggage was returned to me. That is not a scenario that I expected at all,” she said.
She inquired directly with Mexico’s embassy in Canada, which confirmed she’s right.
“Permanent residents of Canada must present their Permanent Resident Card and one of the following documents: valid Passport or Refugee Travel Document. [THEY] DO NOT REQUIRE A VISA,” the embassy wrote in an email later that day.
The same information is also publicly available on the embassy’s website.
“I was shocked. I felt humiliated,” said Nivyabandi.
‘Systemic pattern of racial profiling’
Nivyabandi said this is not the first time she’s experienced problems trying to enter or leave the country, and she knows she’s not alone.
“It’s part of a pattern and a systemic pattern of racial profiling, of over-scrutinizing travellers who happen to be racialized, happen to be Black, happen to be from a religious minority, happen to be refugees who are immediately assumed to be in the wrong,” she said.
Those sentiments were echoed by the Americas director for Amnesty International, who called the situation “outrageous and unacceptable.”
“We demand a public apology from the airline and reparation for the harm caused, which must include immediately issuing her a new ticket to fly as soon as possible,” wrote Erika Guevara-Rosas in a statement posted on the organization’s website.
Rules ‘complex,’ says Air Canada
Nivyabandi was refunded the cost of her flight. She re-booked and was able to board a more expensive flight Friday afternoon.
The airline said it had since “obtained further clarity on the rules” and has apologized to Nivyabandi — though maintained it handled the situation appropriately.
“It is Air Canada’s policy to treat every customer with respect and courtesy and this is how we responded to Ms. Nivyabandi’s situation at Ottawa airport,” the airline said in a statement to CBC on Friday.
Air Canada wrote that several agents worked hard to help Nivyabandi, including consulting Timatic, a data resource maintained by the International Air Transport Association that airlines can consult on national entry requirements including a passenger’s eligibility to enter a country.
“These rules can be complex and may vary from country to country, particularly in instances where a customer is travelling on a less-commonly used type of document, such as in this instance, a refugee document,” Air Canada said, adding that airlines are subject to penalty if they allow passengers to fly without proper documentation.
“The information Timatic provided in this instance was unclear about the necessary documents to travel to Mexico,” Air Canada said. The airline said it’s working with the service to make sure its information is correct and updated.
Air Canada has apologized to Nivyabandi directly and says it has since ‘obtained further clarity on the rules.’ (Ben Nelms/CBC)
Confusion rife, lawyer says
Immigration lawyer Jacqueline Bonisteel said she can sympathize with airlines that must navigate complex regulations involving multiple jurisdictions.
While a refugee travel document is a legitimate and accepted form of identification, “the reality is that that document isn’t accepted by every country, and travel on that document does tend to be more difficult than it would be on a Canadian passport,” she said.
Bonisteel noted she often hears about “confusion” among airline workers who are “making calls that we believe don’t comply with the law.”
“I think it’s just another example of barriers that refugees face and something that we need to look at as best we can,” she said.
“It’s not Canada’s rules, it’s the rules that the countries that people are trying to travel to, but perhaps there’s more that we could be doing to ensure that these issues don’t come up.”
Nivyabandi said she understands that airlines need to follow the rules, but felt what happened to her was an example of how those rules are subject to interpretation, which can leave people like her in a difficult position.
She has since reached out to Air Canada leadership for a conversation about wider reforms, including training for employees on racial profiling and compensation for travellers who are unfairly denied boarding a flight.
“I’m not the only one who has experienced this, it’s a pattern. It happens across the board, and so it requires a robust and systemic response,” she said.
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.
