Airline passenger advocates are criticizing proposed changes to the Canada Transportation Act, which include doubling the maximum amount of time customers could be forced to wait on the tarmac before they're allowed to disembark. "I will be urging and begging and pleading with the committee to amend the provisions of Bill C-49 that take away the rights of passengers," said Gabor Lukacs, founder of the organization Air Passenger Rights. The bill includes changes to air and railway transportation, including paving the way for the Canada Transportation Agency to eventually create what is often referred to as a passenger bill of rights. But the bill also includes some immediate changes to passengers' rights, which advocates like Lukacs say are troubling. And it said mechanical failures were exempted to avoid pressuring airlines to "choose between safety and air passenger rights because of the financial consequences of not departing on time or cancelling the flight."

Source: CBC News March 17, 2018 10:00 UTC