Air Canada lays off blind longtime employee, saying it can’t accommodate him amid pandemic

Christine Long, CTV News Montreal Entertainment Reporter, and Selena Ross, CTV News Montreal Digital Reporter, July 21, 2020
In 2016, Sean Fitzgibbon starred in an Air Canada promotional video about inclusion. It showed him on the job, working as a stock-keeper. He was also given the company’s award of excellence for his service. So it came as a shock when he got a letter saying the airline could no longer accommodate his medical condition. Fitzgibbon has been legally blind for seven years, and last month Air Canada told him that now that it is downsizing its workforce amid the pandemic, the company can no longer provide him with a suitable job that he can safely perform. Even stranger, in a way, was a message included in the letter: Should your medical condition improve… please advise the Company immediately, as this information may impact your ability to return to work, it said. The union says the company did not try hard enough to find him another position.