September 10, 2026 Team Contributor
He had to drag himself off an Air Canada plane. Now, wheelchair users are taking the airline to court. A class-action lawsuit brought by wheelchair users against Air Canada has been certified by the B.C. Supreme Court. This makes way for the case to move forward on behalf of a wider group of passengers with mobility disabilities.
At the heart of the case is a deeply personal experience. Rodney Hodgins, the man in the centre of the story, hails from B.C, suffers from cerebral palsy, and uses a wheelchair. He says he was forced to drag himself down the aisle of an Air Canada aircraft after arriving in Las Vegas in August 2023. The reason behind the ordeal? No assistance was provided to him, forcing him to take the trouble himself.
For Hodgins, the incident was not simply an inconvenience. It raised questions about whether passengers with disabilities can expect to travel safely and with dignity.
Interestingly the news comes in the backdrop of Air Canada Accessibility Plan 2026-2029 in June this year, which lays out a slew of measures the airlines would be taking to make travel accessible and inclusive.
What is the lawsuit about?
Hodgins alleges that Air Canada has failed to meet its obligations to passengers who require mobility assistance. This includes helping them board and leave aircraft, navigate aircraft stairs, and move safely between wheelchairs and seats.
The lawsuit goes beyond his individual experience, and that is where it becomes both interesting and damning. It alleges broader failures involving Air Canada’s accessibility policies, procedures, training and oversight. The case alleges a systemic accessibility problem affecting wheelchair users across Air Canada’s operations.
Who does the class action cover?
The B.C. court has certified a class covering eligible Air Canada passengers who travelled between January 2021 and June 2023 and required a wheelchair to reach or leave the aircraft, along with assistance involving aircraft steps and seating.
Certification does not mean the court has found Air Canada liable. It means the court has determined that the claims can proceed collectively as a class action. So, there’s more to come.
What happens next?
The allegations will now be litigated, and Air Canada will have the opportunity to defend itself. The airline had argued that complaints should instead be addressed through the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA). But the court thinks otherwise. The B.C. judge rejected that argument at the certification stage.
The judge concluded that the CTA process wouldn’t provide Hodgins and the other proposed class members with the specific remedy they sought and therefore wouldn’t provide substantive access to justice in this situation.
The wider implications
The case could have implications beyond Air Canada. For people who rely on wheelchairs or other mobility assistance, air travel can involve far more than booking a ticket and reaching a destination.
How an airline handles boarding, transfers, aircraft access and mobility equipment can determine whether a journey feels independent and dignified or humiliating and unsafe.
The lawsuit therefore puts a larger question before the courts: when accessibility failures affect multiple passengers, can they be treated as an individual inconvenience or evidence of a systemic problem that requires systemic accountability? We will bring more updates as the case unfolds.
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