Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Repulse Bay (Jan 16/02) - Trying to get her son's wheelchair fixed has turned into a nightmare for a Repulse Bay teacher.

Leonie Aissaoui's adopted son, Yohan Grandjambe, 12, suffers from muscular dystrophy.

Yohan's sickness is congenital. He can no longer walk and requires a wheelchair at all times.

Aissaoui said she was appreciative when Kivalliq Air offered to ship her son's chair to Winnipeg free of charge.

What the airline didn't tell her, however, was that since the chair was being shipped for free, it was not viewed as a priority.

The chair sat at the Repulse Bay airport for about 10 weeks before finally being shipped in mid-December.

When Aissaoui still hadn't heard anything by the first week in January, she phoned the Winnipeg company fixing the chair.

"I couldn't believe it when they told me they never received Yohan's chair," said Aissaoui.

"It was still sitting in Churchill. It's obvious if I hadn't called, nobody was even going to tell me the chair was still sitting there."

When contacted by Kivalliq News, Randy Klymm of Kivalliq Air said the wheelchair would be delivered to Winnipeg this past week.

Klymm said the chair was moved as freight and the airline's policy is that people go ahead of freight.

He said Calm Air also moves freight out of Repulse and Aissaoui could have used that airline and paid whatever costs were associated with its transportation.

"We brought the chair down at basically no charge cost to her, so we did it on a space-available basis," said Klymm.

"We're doing what we can to try and help her out, but we made it clear to her at the time that it will come down as space is available. Clearly, we wanted to get the chair down as soon as we could, but we have our limitations like anybody else."

Boy struggles without chair

Aissaoui's problems might not be over yet. Klymm said the airline is not committed to bringing the chair back to Repulse.

"The request was to bring it down and there's a note to call the local repair agency down here and that's all I know about it right now. If anything, it would have been nice to get a positive mention that we are helping out where we can.

"Instead, we're kind of doing a bit of damage control and that's unfortunate because we didn't have to ship it at no charge."

Being without his wheelchair has greatly affected Yohan's life. Aissaoui said he no longer plays sports at school or takes part in activities with his local cadet corps.

"This is a 12-year-old child with a handicap and it seems like nobody cares enough to help him with this," she said.

"I've taught here for eight years, but this may affect my decision to come back. If I cannot have any service for a child who is handicapped, then the North is not for us."