Asking for a friend (really!). feel I should know the answer to this but here goes.

BA flight from (I think) YYZ- LHR cancelled and BA said to him that his OTA must organise rebooking. Apparently they were hopeless. Pax instead paid for flights to CDG, then onward to LHR and has been told that he will be reimbursed as well as EC261.

I thought that at -24 hrs it was under airline control?? Was BA right or wrong?