‘I feel my life is less-than’: Woman says she’s stuck abroad after Air Canada ‘broke’ her wheelchair

Toronto woman with disabilities says she’s unable to attend an accessibility conference after her flight landed in Israel because she claims Air Canada badly damaged her electric wheelchair.“I feel like people with disabilities aren’t seen, like we’re treated like luggage, like cattle,” said Maayan Ziv in a tearful Instagram post, saying she took several precautionary measures, including bubble-wrapping the wheelchair and arriving to the airport early.People with disabilities aren’t permitted to board any aircraft with a personal electronic mobility device, so Ziv says she checked in her wheelchair, only to find it ‘broken’ when she landed in Tel Aviv.“It was a surprise and a complete shock and unfortunately extremely triggering,” she told Global News. “I arrived and my wheelchair was totally damaged, it looked like it had been folded in half, and it’s very sturdy metal so it had either been dropped or something had fallen on it.” Air Canada expects flight, baggage delays to ease this year Ziv said the wheelchair is valued at roughly $30,000 and weighs about 300 to 400 pounds.

She also doesn’t believe some of the parts can be replaced.“It’s barely moving…  there’s a lot of rattling and clanking, but the most shocking and obvious thing is that’s happened is that the entire seat itself has been mangled.”Ziv says airlines have damaged her electronic wheelchairs before, but this incident is one of the worse — leaving her stranded at her hotel in Tel Aviv, unable to attend the accessibility conference where she was going to speak about better access and treatment for those with disabilities.I got off a plane to find my independence stripped from me.