In some ways, this comes down to a "damned if you do or don't" situation for Air Canada.
If they remove the passenger, they take heat for removing an otherwise healthy person reacting to a bad smell. If they don't, and the person does end up sick through the flight, they take heat for not removing that passenger in addition to all the other associated costs outlined above.I'm sure many of us have had similar situations where an FA tells us someone appears to be sick just as we're about to close the doors. Granted the couple of times it has happened to me, I have not been 14-hours away from base and save for one situation, there were more flights that day. But, I've lost count the number of times I've been told never to allow a person who appears to be sick or is being sick onboard the aircraft. Therefore, if I or my FAs deny boarding, we're following company protocol. Done deal. They did their jobs. End of story.
Could or should Air Canada have done more? Perhaps. But, given the information in the article, it reads as a "he said, she said" scenario. Everyone loses in those. If Air Canada puts them on the next flight, they admit they were wrong in the first place. If Air Canada continues to deny passage while another airline agrees to it, then Air Canada is still in the wrong. Better to be in the wrong publically but err on the side of caution than to give in and create a precedent. The needs of the many, sort of thing.
Bksmithca, I know where you're going with your comment, but I don't think that because an airline installs air sickness bags gives passengers the right to show up sick. The bags are there primarily for motion sickness, not to allow little Jonny or Julie to travel while projectile vomiting. Each case is different, and when my wife was travelling while pregnant, she avoided travelling during the hours where she was sick. If she could not avoid it, she made sure to tell the crew beforehand. I'm sure it does help to have a husband in the industry who knows the rules, but I wouldn't think to show up to a meeting in a confined space where I knew I couldn't get out for a couple hours without telling someone I might be in-and-out of the bathroom. In that case, I would expect to be told to stay away.