I will tell you that every person with a disability I talk to about this—and I get lots of feedback in my leadership role with my coalition—has had problems. I don't mean all the time. I don't even know if it's most of the time. Whenever we get on a plane, we never know what we're in for, and we have to be ready for the worst.
Let's take that statistic, and let's tear it apart. Most of us, I think.... I can certainly say for myself that I have not filed complaints about 99.9% of the incidents. I wouldn't have time to eat, sleep, or do anything else if that's all I did.
Number two, I dare say most people don't know how or where to file complaints, even if they want to. That should be announced at the airports. That should be announced on every flight. That should be included on every ticket.
Number three, many people travel on our airlines but end up outside Canada. When they get back to their home country, if they've had a bad experience, do you think they're calling to find out which regulatory agency deals with the problems they've faced and how to file a complaint, and getting involved in some long legal process? I don't think so.
When Air Canada or any other airline comes up with those numbers, forgive me, but they're, in effect, trivializing what we're facing. In fairness, the CEO of Air Canada said he knows it's under-reported, and he knows there are more, so I want to be fair about that. However, to be able to say you're doing a good job, and these are the numbers, is to be shockingly out of touch with our experience. Either it's just a huge coincidence that the only people with disabilities who happen to talk to me about this are people who have had these problems, or it's a bigger problem. I leave it to you to decide which it is.