An indigenous chief has claimed crewmembers on Canada’s largest airline “harassed” her over her ceremonial headdress on a recent flight before placing the sacred item in a garbage bag and tossing it into the baggage hold.
Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, national chief of the assembly of First Nations, was on a domestic flight Wednesday when she said her headdress was taken by Air Canada staff.
“Air Canada needs a protocol for First Peoples so that we are not harassed for our sacred items,” she wrote on Facebook, sharing images of cabin crew taking the headdress and moving it beneath the plane. “Our headdresses don’t belong in garbage bags by airlines.”
“Thank you to the kind Canadians on the plane who stuck up for me and tried to help,” she added.
Backlash against the airline mounted under Woodhouse Nepinak’s post — which had been shared over 700 times — with many commentators urging the airline to “do better,” and some even floating the idea of a boycott.
“I feel physically sick to my very core… This is RACISM in action!!! So sorry National Grand Chief, we love you and our thoughts and prayers are with you,” one person wrote.
Another added: “Wow I am totally speechless, this is unacceptable and beyond disrespectful. Shame on Air Canada. This needs to be addressed immediately and followed by an apology.”
Other commentators noted the hypocrisy as the airline, like all others, allows people with other types of headwear to travel unaffected.
Air Canada said it had reached out to Woodhouse Nepinak to “better understand and apologize” for the incident, noting that the airline “understands the importance of accommodating customers with items and symbols of sacred cultural significance,” according to The Guardian.
Woodhouse Nepinak, who previously served as regional chief of Manitoba’s Assembly of First Nations, received the headdress during a ceremony in January, a month after her election to the post.
Several Canadian politicians joined her in criticizing the country’s largest airline, including Canada’s former justice minister David Lametti, who called the incident “shameful” and “ridiculous.”
The headdress “can’t simply be placed in checked luggage,” he said in a statement.
“I have been on numerous flights where larger pieces of ordinary luggage were placed safely in the cabin. Their refusal in this case is simply shocking.”
The Grand Chief of Nishnawabe Aski Nation, Alvin Fiddler also called the incident “shameful” and called on Air Canada to “ensure all members of your team are aware and follow all protocols on handling sacred items.”
