Until August 1, 2015, the Canadian Aviation Regulations (the “CARS”) required at least one flight attendant for every 40 passengers on board a commercial aircraft.  In 2013, Transport Canada (the regulator of aircraft operators) granted exemptions to several carriers, including Sunwing Airlines, allowing them to operate with a ratio of one flight attendant for every 50 passenger seats.  European and U.S. carriers were already permitted to operate under a 1:50 ratio.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) represents flight attendants employed by several Canadian airlines.  Over the past few years, CUPE has voiced strong opposition to the exemptions granted by Transport Canada.  As mentioned above, the CARS were amended as of August 1, 2015, and now permit air operators …

In November 2009, an aircraft operated by Pel-Air Aviation Pty Ltd (“Pel-Air”) flew from Sydney, Australia to Samoa to transport a seriously ill patient and her husband to Melbourne, Australia.  The plane was scheduled to land at Norfolk Island (on its way to Melbourne) to refuel.  It crashed during that leg of the flight and the doctor and nurse who were onboard the aircraft (Ms. Casey and Dr. Helm) were both seriously injured.  They commenced an action against Pel-Air in the Supreme Court of South Wales.

As this case involved an international flight, Ms. Casey and Dr. Helm could only recover damages according to the provisions of the Montreal Convention, an international treaty that exclusively governs such cases.  Courts around …

Michel and Lynda Thibodeau (the “Thibodeaus”) launched several complaints before Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages (the “Commissioner”) alleging that Air Canada had contravened its obligations under the Official Languages Act (“OLA”) to provide services in French. They alleged that on two trips they made in 2009, Air Canada had failed to offer services in French at check-in counters, boarding gates and aboard flights on which there was significant demand for services in French, and that it made passenger announcements only in English.

The Commissioner found that all but two of the complaints had merit. The matter then proceeded before the Federal Court of Canada, which awarded $6,000 in damages to each of the Thibodeaus, representing $1,500 per violation. The Federal …

On June 20, 2014, the Government of Canada announced sweeping changes to its Temporary Foreign Worker Program, many of which were effective immediately.  Pilots are one of very few specific occupations that were singled out in the changes.

Under the former system, employers were required to obtain authority to hire a foreign worker through a “Labour Market Opinion”.  Employers must now apply for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), which is a more comprehensive and rigorous process.  The LMIA must include information about the number of Canadians who have applied for the available job, the number of Canadians interviewed, and an explanation of why those Canadians were not hired.  A new job matching service has been introduced in an effort …

On March 12, 2009, a Sikorsky S-92A helicopter destined for the Hibernia Oilfield crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.  Seventeen passengers suffered fatal injuries in the crash and the lone survivor suffered serious injuries.  In response to safety recommendations from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, regulatory amendments have been proposed by Transport Canada.  The proposed amendments are meant to reduce the risks associated with flights in support of offshore oil, gas or mineral exploration.

The proposed amendments contain the following new requirements:

(a)        no offshore operations flights are to be conducted if the sea state reported at the destination exceeds the sea state for which the helicopter is certified to conduct a ditching in …

A 19-year old man was charged in Calgary this week with assault causing bodily harm and two mischief-related charges under the Criminal Code.  He is being accused of pointing a type-3 laser at a Calgary police helicopter pilot three times.  For a recent article about the rising frequency of these incidents in Canada, click here.  It is alarming and perplexing that these events continue to occur.…

Canada’s Minister of State (Transport) announced yesterday that new software will be deployed on Canada’s full-body scanners that will enhance passenger privacy at airports.  The new software produces computer generated “stick figures” rather than an outline of the passenger’s body, enhancing privacy for air travellers.  In addition, the scanner does not collect personal information from the passenger it screens nor is the image correlated in any way with the name of the passenger or any other identifying information.

The changes likely arise in response to the decision by the United States to get rid of body scanners that could not be modified to alleviate privacy concerns.  The Electronic Privacy Information Center (a public internet research outfit in Washington, DC) claimed …