Twelve new fines of up to $5,000 will be imposed by Transport Canada on passengers who were on the flight to Cancun on December 30, 2021, on which several people partied without masks and distancing, in the heart of the fifth wave of COVID-19.
Posted at 12:18 p.m.
“Passengers on the Montreal-Cancun flight on December 30 continue to face the consequences of their actions with 12 new fines issued,” confirmed Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra in the early afternoon on Twitter.
A total of seven of the 12 fines would be imposed due to incomplete vaccination. The other five would rather relate to non-compliance with the wearing of the mask. Minister Alghabra also promises that there will be even more sanctions “to come” in this file.
This new dozen fines brings to 24 the total of sanctions that have been imposed on travelers on the controversial Sunwing flight, which made headlines after the broadcast on social networks of images showing passengers without mask and close to each other. Many sing and dance in the aisle and on seats, as liquor bottles change hands, and some vape or take selfies.
In the process, the Ministry of Transport launched an investigation on January 4 to determine whether the 154 passengers on the flight violated laws or regulations relating to aviation safety and security.
The first six fines of up to $5,000 had already been imposed at the beginning of March on travelers who were not fully vaccinated, thus contravening Transport Canada rules. Last week, six other sanctions were also imposed for five cases of non-compliant vaccination, and another for not wearing a mask on board the flight.
Recall that the organizer of the trip, James William Awad, said at the end of January that he wanted to sue Sunwing, which had refused to bring the passengers back to Quebec after the case had been publicized.
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had meanwhile made a remarkable outing against these travelers, calling them in particular “Ostrogoths on vacation”. “It is unacceptable that people are endangering not just other passengers, not just other airline workers, but their fellow citizens,” he said. From the start, however, Ottawa has never really specified how these people managed to board the aircraft at the airport despite the compulsory vaccination imposed in air transport.