The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that lawmakers took Air Canada's chief executive officer to task on Monday over "shocking" failures to accommodate passengers living with disabilities. A Canadian Press dispatch to the Post says that at a House committee hearing on services for Canadians with disabilities, CEO Michael Rousseau faced a barrage of questions over reports of passenger mistreatment in the past year. Conservative vice-chair Tracy Gray cited several incidents she deemed shocking: "An Air Canada passenger had a lift fall on her head and her ventilator was disconnected; Air Canada leaving Canada's own chief accessibility officer's wheelchair behind on a cross-Canada flight ... and a man was dropped and injured when Air Canada staff didn't use a lift as requested." In August, a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off of an airplane due to a lack of help, a situation Bloc Quebecois MP Louise Chabot called "scandalous." Asked by NDP disability inclusion critic Bonita Zarrillo whether he had ever had to crawl down the aisle or exit on a catering cart, he replied, "No, of course not. We do make mistakes." Mr. Rousseau said new measures will improve travel for the disabled.
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