A Nova Scotia man was removed from an Air Canada flight for wearing a shirt that featured an image of former prime minister Justin Trudeau in blackface, which the cabin crew found to be “offensive.”
Daniel Greaves, 62, was sitting in his seat on a plane bound from Edmonton to Vancouver on July 8, waiting for the aircraft to leave the tarmac, when he was first notified of the problem regarding his clothing.
Greaves, who flies frequently to and from his work in northern Alberta, said he’d worn the shirt while flying before without any issue.
However, he was notified that a member of the cabin crew of flight AC245 took issue with the imagery on Greaves’ shirt, calling it “offensive” and “racial.”
The shirt featured an infamous image of Trudeau wearing a turban with black face paint.
He attempted to express to the flight attendant that the shirt was a comment about the former prime minister and not one about race.
Greaves, who felt that such a request violated his rights, decided to remain seated and asked the flight attendant to present him with documentation that would justify why he would have to be removed from the plane and miss his flight.
The flight attendant told him that his t-shirt was not up to the airline’s “dress code,” particularly because Trudeau was no longer in office, telling him that they too have a dress code and weren’t allowed “to wear bikinis.”
Greaves attempted to get his phone to record the exchange, but was told he was not permitted to record on the plane. However, he decided to record audio anyway, discreetly.
He was then asked to leave and walked off the plane on his own.
Several RCMP officers met Greaves at the boarding gate and told him he was being “detained” and could potentially face a charge of mischief.
In an audio recording provided to True North by Greaves, he can be heard asking an RCMP officer if he could reboard the plane if he turned the shirt inside out, to which the officer said he would ask the flight captain.
However, according to Greaves, moments later an officer grabbed the back of his elbow from behind him and he “flinched,” which resulted in him being “picked up and thrown on the ground.”
“This is the reason why you’re not on the plane. I’m trying to escort you out, and you want to start turning around and start flinching on me. This is why you’re not going anywhere,” said an RCMP officer after Greaves was taken to the ground.
“Then he put handcuffs on me,” Greaves told True North. “So I shut up and listened to them. They walked me down the stairs and let me go. I’m 63 in another week or so, 145 pounds. I’m not a big man.”
Before being released and uncuffed, Greaves was told by officers that he had been “disrupting the enjoyment of other people on the plane.”
“You were told to get off the plane because the captain chose that you could be a problem on the plane,” said the officer.
True North contacted the RCMP in Edmonton to verify whether there was any documentation of their exchange with Greaves.
“Upon arrival, officers met with an individual who was upset with being denied boarding on an aircraft. Upon being denied boarding, the individual was told to leave the secure side of the airport, which he did not comply, contrary to Section 139 (1) of the Canadian Aviation Security Regulations,” Cpl. Troy Savinkoff told True North.
Section 139 (1) states that if a person has been given notice, orally, in writing or by a sign, that access to a part of an aerodrome is prohibited or is limited to authorized persons, the person must not enter or remain in that part of the aerodrome without authorization.
“The male was detained in order to be escorted out of the restricted area of the airport. Once he complied, the male was released without charges,” said Savinkoff.
“From my understanding, the individual did have a t-shirt that had an image of former prime minister Trudeau. I won’t speculate on why he was denied boarding, as that is with the air carrier, and we dealt with the disturbance after the incident,” RCMP Cpl. Troy Savinkoff told True North.
Air Canada declined True North’s request for comment.
truenorthwire.com
