My husband and I were recently on an Airbus 319 from YYC to YYZ. We had switched to that flight at the last minute simply because we were at the airport a little earlier than our originally scheduled flight, so we ended up with separate aisle seats toward the back of the plane. Shortly before departure, I see my husband heading toward the front of the plane, indicating that he sacrificed his aisle seat for an exit row seat closer to the front (seat 16A, technically a middle seat, but without a window seat beside it, so clearly not a bad seat). He agreed to the move in order to allow a family to be reunited. When he got to the exit row, he found the seat to be occupied by someone who (a) didn't speak English and (b) was a "little" person (about 3.5 feet tall). Rather than make a fuss, he took the only vacant seat in the vicinity (and on the whole plane, as it turns out), seat 15B, wedged between two rather large people. The poor guy wasn't too happy.

It got me wondering about AC's policy for exit row seating. Doesn't Canadian aviation law require people to speak English (or perhaps French?) and to be strong enough to open the exit door in an emergency? (This person likely weighed less than 50 pounds and seemed only able to speak Russian.)