Air Passenger Rights Group Says ‘Unconstitutional’ Rules Muzzle Travellers

Air Passenger Rights, a Halifax-based non-profit organization led by Gábor Lukács, says Canadian travellers are being muzzled by legislative changes preventing passengers from sharing full details of Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) decisions.

Canadians who have disputes with airlines, most often over compensation for delayed or cancelled flights can file with the CTA. Lukács says though that passengers can and should take their cases to small claims court instead.

At issue is section 85.09(1) of the Canadian Transportation Act, a rule imposed in 2023 which says once the CTA issues a decision, neither the airline nor the passenger involved is allowed to openly share the details, unless both parties agree. 

Prior to the 2023 changes, full decisions issued by the CTA were posted online, but now only basic information is posted. The reasons behind a ruling remain confidential. 

Since that rule was implemented, not a single case has been made fully public, CBC reports. Lukács says the situation gives airlines an advantage by having access to previous rulings while passengers are in the dark on how complaints are decided. 

To protest the situation, Air Passenger Rights has filed a constitutional challenge in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, arguing Canadians should have access to the decisions made by the CTA’s quasi-judicial tribunal.  

“We believe that the way the complaint process has been set up at the Canadian Transportation Agency violates fundamental rights,” said Lukács in an interview with the CBC.

“The only entities that benefit from this are the airlines,” said Lukács. “Individual passengers don’t have the experience or don’t have the knowledge of what arguments work and don’t work while the airlines compile these huge databases of their own cases.”

As part of its legal argument, Air Passenger Rights asked for the decisions, reasons and all documents for five air passenger complaint files last July in an effort to demonstrate that the CTA systematically denies all such requests.

As the group predicted, the CTA denied the request a month later, citing section 85.09(1) of the Canadian Transport Act as the basis for its refusal.

The lawsuit argues that current rules prevent Air Passenger Rights from doing its job, because it needs to know how complaints are being decided in order to provide information and resources to passengers and push for improvements.It also argues that the secrecy around decisions prevents media and other organizations from “effectively communicating information about air passenger complaint proceedings.”