Months after a knee surgery, June Francis booked a business-class flight from Vancouver for a conference in Toronto, the first leg of a work trip that would also include the U.S. and Peru.
Having waited in the “exceptionally long line” at check-in for business passengers, the 62-year-old Jamaican Canadian said she approached the economy area and attempted to ask an Air Canada staffer for help, out of concern about standing too long on her replaced knees.
But what happened next would lead to a complaint that is believed to be the first case of “flying while Black” that reaches a full hearing before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
