(LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian man not allowed to board a flight to go to a medical appointment because he was not masked despite having a doctor’s note saying he could not wear a facemask was denied compensation for damages.

On April 3, 2022, a WestJet Airlines passenger from Fort McMurray, Alberta, was set to board a flight to Calgary for a medical appointment. He had in hand a signed doctor’s note that wearing a mask was not an option for him due to his “reduced lung function” after having had cancer surgery.

The man was denied boarding by WestJet staff and forced to drive 740 kilometers to Calgary to make his medical appointment.

As a result of not being allowed on the flight, the man sought $40,000 in damages as well as costs associated with having hired a rental car via a claim made to the Canadian Transportation Agency.

His claim was dismissed outright, with the regulators writing in its Decision No. 11-AT-A-2024, “Passengers are responsible for ensuring they meet all documentary requirements to travel.”

“WestJet communicated the requirements about mask exemptions to passengers before travel via its website,” the Canadian Transportation Agency ruled.

The Agency admitted that while the man was a person “with a disability,” the rules, in this case the mask mandate, took precedence.

“WestJet indicates it adopted its policy based on an honest and good faith belief it was necessary in order to provide safe transportation services,” the regulators wrote.

The federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau implemented a mask mandate for air travel on April 20, 2020, that was not lifted until October 1, 2022.

Mask mandates were deemed pointless even from results from focus groups from Trudeau’s own Privy Council, which in a May 16, 2022, report noted masks had “little impact overall with some feeling in many cases they had done more harm than good.”

Canada’s airline industry was hit with some of the strongest COVID mandates, which at one point saw COVID jab mandates for anyone traveling on an airplane, even domestically.

Many pilots and airline workers lost their jobs as a result but have fought back via lawsuits.