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Blind passenger alleges he was left at the curb by Air Canada and airport authority

A blind lawyer and disability rights activist has filed a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency after he was unable to get help to get inside Toronto's Pearson International Airport safely last weekend.

David Lepofsky has travelled frequently for work and has always relied on the curbside assistance program previously offered by the Greater Toronto Airport Authority to navigate from his taxi to the airport counter.

All a customer had to do was call a central number en route and a staff member would meet that person at a predetermined spot outside the terminal, Lepofsky said. But when he called Saturday, the 59-year-old lawyer said he was told the authority no longer offers the service and was instead given a number for Air Canada.

Taxi driver helped

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Leopofsky said he called the number given, but the Air Canada representative there told him the airline didn't know of any such service.

"People without disabilities, if this was the kind of service they got just to get in the front door of an airport — [they] wouldn't use this airport again," Lepofsky said. "And there's no reason why people with disabilities should be treated like this."

In this case, Lepofsky's taxi driver was the one to help him inside. Cab drivers are not allowed to leave their vehicles unattended and can face steep fines if they do so.

It's unclear exactly what happened in Lepofsky's case, because an Air Canada spokesperson said the airline does have staff available to meet people with disabilities outside the terminal. The airline, however, is in the middle of revamping its service, a statement from Air Canada to CBC News said.

Right now, passengers can call a central airport operator and should be connected to a local Air Canada staff member to ask for assistance.

"The service is changing and to improve our special assistance handling even further Air Canada is currently establishing its own centralized area at the airport for special assistance," the statement said.

That counter would be near the curb so that vehicles could drop passengers just outside it, the statement said.

Lepofsky said he has yet to understand why no one was able to meet him from the airline last weekend.

"I've gotten multiple explanations," he said. "I've gotten all sorts of conflicting advice from good ground people who all just have a different story.

"They have to go back to just doing what they used to do."