Woman says airline humiliated her because of non-contagious rash
HALIFAX — An Edmonton woman says she was publicly humiliated and booted off an Air Canada flight after a rash was mistakenly labelled as contagious.
Jeanne Lehman, a community activist and officer with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said she is seeing a psychologist for mental trauma she endured boarding a plane at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
“How they treated me, I didn’t feel like someone who is an important client,” she said. “I feel, like, rejected and (given a) lack of consideration, you know. This is a shame for me.”
Lehman is a black, Frenchspeaking woman who calls the treatment systemic racism.
Her trouble began when a rash appeared on the right side of her face during a trip to Halifax last week. Over the course of two days, the rash got worse.
“At first I thought it was because I ate a lot of seafood (and thought) it was an allergy.”
She went to an emergency room on Friday where the doctor told her she had a non-contagious rash and was OK to travel.
Upon boarding, she asked a flight attendant for a window seat because she felt self-conscious about her raised, rough skin.
She said she told the attendant that she wasn’t contagious. But before takeoff, Lehman said she saw a woman wearing gloves and a face mask walk toward her.
“She said: ‘Take all your belongings and follow me.’ I said: ‘for what?’”
Lehman said what happened next keeps her up at night. “She said to me ‘You are contagious, I cannot leave you on the plane.’ I said ‘Ma’am, not only am I not contagious, even if I was this isn’t the way you should say it, loudly, telling everyone I am contagious.’”
Lehman said passengers were taken off the plane while attendants disinfected her seat.
She said the pilot announced on a PA system that a passenger was contagious and had to be removed for the safety of other passengers. “I started crying because everyone was looking at me. I was very embarrassed ... ”
Lehman said she was escorted to a Halifax hospital to get a doctor’s diagnosis and was told she wouldn’t be able to board unless she provided a doctor’s note.
Lehman said the emergency room doctor diagnosed her with shingles and gave her a note confirming she is safe to travel. Air Canada gave her a hotel room and food vouchers to accommodate her overnight stay, and she was sitting in first class on a plane to Toronto.
In Toronto, she said she was asked again to provide her doctor’s note before boarding a plane to Edmonton.“I wasn’t treated like a first-class person.”