Porter breaks its own rules by kicking deaf woman and her service dog off a flight

Georgina Villeneuve says the humiliation still stings when she thinks about being forced off a Porter plane last month.

She was threatened by a flight attendant and berated by another passenger — all over her 20 pound service dog sleeping at her feet.

"For a week I cried nonstop … [I] don't like to create scenes," the Edmonton woman told Go Public.

Villeneuve lost most of her hearing a few years ago after a viral infection. She says she can't hear out of her right ear and has less than 15 per cent hearing in her left, so she mainly communicates by reading lips.

She relies on her service dog, Maggie, to alert her to dangers or sounds she needs to be aware of. Maggie also helps with Villeneuve's lack of balance caused by her hearing loss. 

But as a Porter plane bound for Edmonton waited in line to taxi down a Toronto runway in September, a flight attendant ordered Villeneuve to put her service dog under the seat in front of her — a direct violation of both Porter and Canadian Transportation Agency rules because it can injure the animal and interfere with the dog's ability to help its disabled owner.

"She said to me … 'It's like this. That dog goes under the seat or we're turning the plane around … and we're going to remove you from the flight.'"

All the while, Villeneuve says an irate passenger seated in the row ahead was on a tirade, angry about a possible flight interruption.

"He keeps yelling and screaming and telling us we're inconsiderate and we're losers," Villeneuve said. "He says, 'Just take the damn dog and kick it under the seat.' "

Villeneuve had done everything she was supposed to do in order to bring a service animal on a flight. She even tried showing the flight attendant Porter's own rules posted on the airline's website — but the crew member wouldn't drop her demand.

An advocate for people with disabilities says he's not surprised to hear what happened to Villeneuve, but is "deeply disappointed."

That's because mandatory rules around service animals on flights have been in place for years, so there's no excuse for airline staff to step on the rights of disabled passengers, according to Robin East, co-chair of the Transportation Committee for the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.

"The dog is not a piece of luggage. It's not that extra piece that you get to take on the plane," he said.

"That dog is there to do a job, and that job is to alert that person if something is happening around them that could be dangerous or that she needs to be alerted to."