Disabled, obese allowed free extra plane seat
Top court refuses airlines' appeal of 'one-person, one-fare' ruling
Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, November 20, 2008Canada's two largest airlines must give disabled and morbidly obese passengers an extra free seat on domestic flights, beginning in January, after the Supreme Court refused yesterday to consider the carriers' appeal of a federal order.
- National Post editorial board: Robbing the slim to pay the portly
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When they are first appointed, all federal judges in Canada take mandatory courses on racial, gender and cultural sensitivity, along with sentencing guidelines and court procedures. Perhaps they should squeeze in a seminar or two on economics, as well.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal by the nation’s airlines against a Canadian Transport Agency (CTA) ruling requiring them to give obese passengers two seats for the price of one. The problem for the airlines — and for the ordinary, non-obese Canadians who underwrite their operations through the purchase of tickets — is that the Justices cannot make the cost of their decision go away. The laws of economics are not repealed merely because our sensitivity-indoctrinated judges are well-intentioned. Someone is going to have to pay for all these “free” extra seats, and it’s not going to be the high-minded benchers who created the added expense.
Why, then, forbid the accommodation of smokers? The Supreme Court rejected an application by Air Canada and WestJet for permission to appeal the order issued by the Canadian Transportation Agency forcing them to provide a free extra seat to disabled or obese passengers.
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