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The Movement Citoyen Handicap-Québec staged a slow-moving, peaceful protest Sunday to demand equal rights for the disabled.

The participants, those severely disabled, sight impaired and otherwise unable to work in traditional jobs, made their way from Lafontaine Park to Premier Pauline Marois’ office in traditional and motorized wheelchairs.

According to the Gazette, the MCHQ claims it is the first demonstration of its kind to bring attention to problems in the provinces social aid program.

Protestors held signs that read: ‘Not Dead Yet’ and ‘Suffocating in Poverty, Let us Breathe!’ saying the current social aid program unfairly targets the disabled and forces many of them to live in poverty.

They want changes to be made to the program, more caregiving allocated so they can stay at home, and not to be placed in long-term homes with the elderly and unwell; something they say is actually more costly to the government.

And in the case of marriage, according to current welfare rules, couples where a spouse is disabled that earn over $1,200 a month in gross income have social assistance cut off.

Unfortunately, no one was at the Premiers office to greet the protesters when they arrived, as it was a holiday weekend.

Hosted by: Saturn De Los Angeles

Stories by: Carlo Spiridigliozzi, Catlin Spencer & Staurn De Los Angeles

Produced by: Carlo Spiridigliozzi

Air Canada passengers who get bumped from their flights will now receive up to 800 dollars in compensation depending on the length of the delay.

According to CBC News, the new rules passed by the Canadian Transportation Agency coming into effect on September 18th mean financial compensation for those who get bumped from a flight without volunteering for it.

Delays less than two hours will result in compensation of $200, $400 for anywhere between 2 and 6 hours, and $800 for delays over six hours.

In addition to the new rules, passengers can now request cash for getting bumped instead of travel vouchers. Although, now, one dollar cash will equal three dollars in travel vouchers.

These changes to the rules come after passenger rights advocate and mathematician Gabor Lukacs said that compensating passengers $100 dollars for being bumped was unreasonably low.

According to Lukacs, the changes are an important step to bring Canada in line with the rest of the Western world, since both Europe and the United States have substantial compensation plans.

Flickr Photo by: Noel Jones

STORY WRITTEN BY: CATLIN SPENCER

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