Cancelled Air Canada flights nearly leave Sudbury couple stranded in Toronto
CBC
Nicole Leclair and her husband would have been stranded at Toronto's Pearson International Airport were it not for help from extended family who drove them home to Sudbury.
On June 29 Air Canada announced it would cancel dozens of daily flights during the summer due to a number of challenges, including a shortage of staff.
Those cancellations affected Leclair and her husband Andy, who had just returned to Canada from a European vacation to visit family.
Twice during the trip, Air Canada cancelled their return flights. The couple flew into Toronto's Pearson Airport on Jul 1, stayed a night in a hotel before catching their return flight the next morning.
But a last minute cancellation email came as they were heading back to the airport — with no immediate solution from Air Canada.
"We sat there (in the airport) all this time and I never got an email back from them," Leclair said.
She said Air Canada told them they cancelled the flights because they didn't have enough crew available to operate the plane.
Leclair said she and her husband were far from the only people left stranded at the airport.
"People were lying down, like taking the whole sitting areas because I guess they must have been there all night," she said.
"Suitcases all over the place. People scattered all over the place, on the floor, sitting, sleeping."
Leclair posted about the ordeal on Facebook and her cousin from Orangeville, Ont., around 60 kilometres from Pearson, saw the post and offered them a ride.
He drove them to Parry Sound, Ont., around 163 kilometres south of Sudbury, and her daughter met them there and drove them the rest of the way.
Leclair said she still hasn't heard from Air Canada since her second flight was cancelled.
"All I want is my money back from Toronto to Sudbury," she said.
Makeshift slaughterhouse in a residential garage points to growing concerns about illicit meat sales
Inside a garage in an established Edmonton neighbourhood, animals were being slaughtered and the meat was advertised for sale to consumers, a CBC News investigation has learned.