MONTREAL -- Two pilots on an Air Canada Jazz flight were forced to break up a fight between two passengers who were brawling over a pair of headphones, police say.
One of the men was kicked off the flight at Trudeau Airport and has been arraigned on several charges.
The altercation delayed the flight to Winnipeg on Tuesday afternoon.
Montreal police spokesman Dany Richer said officers were called to the plane, which was still at the gate.
"The conflict began when one of the two men sat on the armrest of a seat and broke his neighbour's headphones," said Richer.
A fight broke out and a flight attendant was unable to separate the men.
"Her arm was hurt during the altercation," said Richer.
The pilots were finally able to separate the two passengers.
Jamie Lee Prefontaine, 26, of Winnipeg, was taken into custody and charged after police say he resisted arrest and tried to damage a police cruiser.
Prefontaine was arraigned at the Montreal courthouse Thursday on charges of assault with a weapon, uttering threats and mischief.
Air Canada Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stuart said the flight was delayed two hours.
If you search this article it will show up dozens of times, exactly the same. But I had a relative on that flight and a different story emerges.
Specifically, there were four natives who boarded in Montreal, all drunk. The one that was taken away by the police and subsequently charged was covered in gang tattoos and had been asleep in his seat and not responsive to the attendant who was trying to wake him. At some point the man awoke and using a chain from around his neck attacked the attendant bruising her arm resulting in his being removed from the plane by the police.
Which version is correct and why am I bringing this up?
It has to do with another story from last week concerning Air Canada's decision to put up their flight crews during layovers at the Sandman away from their old haunts at the Radisson in the city centre citing concerns over an increase in local crime which they felt was brought on by an influx of "rural" Mantitobans driven from their homes by flooding.
In this case there were several more articles from different sources each adding to the story. So much information that native Chiefs started calling for a boycott against AC and legal action against anyone and everyone, a predictable response that we won't address here. What was interesting was the way the Mayor and other provincial politicians and downtown business leaders combined forces to lash out at AC's very reasonable response to the situation in the downtown. They did not use facts like those that could very easily be found on CromeStat as was very nicely done by Menno Zacharias.
Instead he Mayors response was to find one or two people to claim, as a matter of opinion and without addressing any facts, that the Winnipeg downtown is super fine and just needs the benefit of the doubt. I kid you not.
Instead he Mayors response was to find one or two people to claim, as a matter of opinion and without addressing any facts, that the Winnipeg downtown is super fine and just needs the benefit of the doubt. I kid you not.
What amazes me about the Sam Katz vs. Air Canada story are the words that AC never wrote or said, which would have instantly put Katz back in his box:
ReplyDelete"On Sept. 19, two people were shot near the Radisson Hotel in what police said might have been a random shooting. On Sept. 23, Air Canada Corporate Security decided to temporarily stop using the hotel as a precautionary measure. Comments to the effect that Air Canada made this decision because of the presence of flood evacuees are incorrect, and we apologize for this error."
The entire media, as far as I can tell, failed to notice that the decision was made within four days of the shooting, or had even forgotten about the shooting.
Given that Air Canada can be held liable if an employee is robbed or assaulted while on layover (Lawyer: "You knew there were risks in this neighbourhood such as random shootings, but did nothing about it?"), their decision to move crews to the Sandman was completely reasonable. They should hold their ground on that.
Thanks for the comment 7.
ReplyDeleteMayor Katz, never one to shy from a camera or miss an opportunity to air an opinion should if he has not already done so create a PR staff position who's scope would be to stay on top of media reports concerning the city and after sourcing them rapidly forward the goto name so the Mayor could then make a call and ascertain the facts which most likely would have been somehat incomplete as reported by the MSM for a variety of reasons.
Or he could go into full attack poodle mode which instantly affords him the support of the hard done downtown business association and Winnipeg citizens in general, and should AC issue some sort of “clarification” which will be interpreted as a mea culpa, he could take credit for that as well. Win win.