This is child abuse, plain and simple. WestJet employees forced a mother to abuse her child while a plane filled with passengers watched and said nothing.
We are devolving as both a society and a species if we allow people to treat mothers and small children this way.
WestJet cancelled a flight from Calgary to Toronto yesterday morning when a family onboard struggled to mask their 19-month-old child.
"Earlier today my family endure the most horrific & dehumanizing treatment onboard @WestJet plane," the father, Safwan Choudhry, tweeted. "My wife was threatening [sic] to be arrested & forcibly removed unless my daughters, 3 yrs & 19 months would wear a mask. While my 3yrs wore her mask, the 19 months old was hysterical."
“We were just looking to go back home like most people after the long weekend,” Choudhry told Global News.
An attendant approached Choudhry's wife, demanding that her child wear a mask. She masked her three-year-old daughter. But as the mother grappled with masking her screaming and panicked 19-month-old baby, the crew member looked on.
That's when the incident escalated.
"[The flight attendant] said, 'I’m asking you for the last time because the next time it will be police that will come here and they will arrest you and you will leave with your child,'" Choudhry recounted.
Two Calgary police officers arrived on scene and escorted the family off.