At the start of spring, Canada's primary carrier, Air Canada ACDVF , was embroiled in controversy after First Nations Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak took to social media to describe her experience trying to board a domestic flight while wearing her ceremonial headdress.
The photos that Woodhouse Nepinak, who heads Canada's Assembly of First Nations (the primary organization representing the country's Indigenous tribes), posted on Facebook (META) depict crew workers taking away the case that held the headdress, putting it in a garbage bag and then loading it with the cargo.
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"Our headdress don't belong in garbage bags by airlines," Nepinak wrote in the post calling for a more respectful policy if a sacred item that does not meet the airline's size requirements needs to be removed.
Air Canada responds to accusations of harassment, disrespect
The post quickly blew up with hundreds of comments classifying the incident as racism and harassment. After several months of evaluation and consultation with First Nations representatives, Air Canada now has an updated policy for how it handles sacred and ceremonial items – according to an initial report by CBC, those traveling with such items will be able to reserve cabin space for them 24 hours before the flight or with the gate agent upon arrival to the airport.
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Those choosing the latter option will, however, risk having to check their item if the flight is full and there is no room on the plane. Air Canada told CBC that, should the choice come down to a wheelchair and the ceremonial item, "the mobility device would take precedence should there be insufficient storage space in the cabin."
The new policy takes effect on July 10, and Woodhouse Nepinak welcomed it as a welcome change in how ceremonial items are handled.
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'New protocols recognizing traditional and ceremonial items'
"We wholeheartedly support Air Canada's new protocols recognizing traditional and ceremonial items," Woodhouse Nepinak told CBC. The airline will also not make the call on what is or isn't a ceremonial item but allow the passenger to classify an item as such when they are asking for special accommodation.
Incidents of airlines mishandling crucially important items to passengers periodically make the news over the years. The most famous one in recent media occurred in November 2023, when an American Airlines (AAL) baggage handler was filmed tossing a passenger's wheelchair down a baggage chute and watching as it somersaulted down for another baggage worker to catch.
Air Canada also had an incident where a passenger claimed that the airline broke his $30,000 custom wheelchair through improper handling and offered him a $500 travel voucher for the "inconvenience."
One of the most comical situations happened when United Airlines (UAL) passenger Rich "Mac" McLaurin claimed that a bottle of tequila he purchased in Mexico and packed into his checked baggage was missing just enough for a "shot" when he arrived home.
In the video that also went viral on TikTok, McLaurin points toward the bottle of tequila with a broken seal and jokingly tells United to "count your f***ing days."
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