Jill Rorabeck says he would never have resorted to the Canadian airline regulator to solve his dispute with Swoop Airlines.
The Canadian transport agency (CTA) not only on the side of the airline, Rorabeck can not even share the details of its dispute.
Toronto’s wife filed a complaint almost three years ago with the CTA, which acts as a judge between airlines and passengers in air travel complaints. He learned in January that he lost his case, but due to the legislation approved in 2023 that prevents passengers from sharing complete details of CTA’s decisions, he is not allowed to reveal key information about what happened.
“No one can warn others about their experiences,” Rorabeck said. “There is zero responsibility on the part of the airlines or the CTA.”
The Air Passenger Rights Organization, a non -profit organization based in Halifax, has now presented a constitutional challenge in the Higher Court of Justice of Ontario, arguing that Canadians should have access to the decisions taken by the quasi -audicial court of the CTA.
“We believe that the way in which the complaint process has been established in the Canadian transport agency violates fundamental rights,” said Air Passenger Rights Gábal Lukács founder.
In question, it is section 85.09 (1) of the Canadian Transportation Law, which says that once the CTA issues a decision, neither the airline nor the passenger involved can openly share the details, unless both parties of agreement.
Since this rule was implemented, a single completely public case has not been made, which Lukács says that it gives airlines the strategic advantage of having access to previous decisions, while passengers still do not realize how complaints are decided.
“The only entities that benefit from this are airlines,” Lukács said. “Individual passengers do not have the experience or do not have the knowledge of what arguments they work and do not work, while the airlines compile these huge databases of their own cases.”
Before the changes of 2023, the complete decisions issued by the CTA were published online, but now there is only basic information available. Then, the key details, such as the reasons behind a decision, remain confidential. The regulator says that the new system is faster, fair and more efficient.
The lawsuit argues that the CTA has a quasi -audicial role, so the rules that leaf passengers violate the principle of the open court, which says that judicial procedures must be open to the public.
It is a fundamental aspect of a democratic justice system, which guarantees transparency and public confidence in the legal process, says Paul Daly, a constitutional lawyer and president of research in the Administrative Law and Government program of the University of Ottawa.
“The fact that decisions are not published and the procedures remain confidential, inclines the playing field in favor of the airlines,” Daly said. “I, you or any other person should be able to enter any country court any day of the week and attend a hearing or access to documents … that are in the registry.”
As part of his legal argument, Air Passenger Rights requested decisions, reasons and all documents for five complaint files of aerial passengers last July in an effort to demonstrate that the CTA systematically denies all those requests.
The Secretary of the Agency denied the application a month later, citing section 85.09 (1) of the Canadian Transportation Law as a basis for its rejection.
“They are trying to use this provision as a way of refusing to reveal information that must be disclosed,” Lukács said.
The demand argues that the current rules prevent the rights of aerial passengers from doing their job, because it needs to know how complaints are decided to provide information and resources to passengers and promote improvements.
He also argues that the secret around decisions prevents the media and other organizations from “effectively communicating information on the procedures for aerial passenger complaints.”
The demand requires that an audience be celebrated on video conference. A date for the audience has not been established.
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