Report: Man removed from airplane because of prayer

On September 1st, an Orthodox Jew started to pray on board a Air Canada Jazz flight that was taxing down the runway, en route from Montreal to New York City. He was described by one passenger as "clearly a Hasidic Jew," with a head covering on and reading from a book. The passenger, Yves Faguy, said that the man "wasn't exactly praying out loud but he was lurching back and forth." Reportedly, the action didn't really seem to bother anyone. Anyone, that is, except the flight crew. A flight attendant approached the man and told him that his praying was making other passengers nervous. The woman apologized for the situation and then escorted the man off the plane.

According to a spokeswoman for Jazz airlines, the crew had acted "in the interest of the majority of passengers" when it removed the man from the flight. The airline isn't saying if the man was told that he was not allowed to pray, but they confirmed that the man as back on board the next flight to New York.