A Canadian Airlines pilot who was detained in the Dominican Republic after he and his crew discovered more than 200 kilograms of cocaine on a Toronto-bound flight is seeking $16 million from the federal government and his former employer, Pivot Airlines.
The complaint, filed April 5 in Ontario Superior Court, alleges the physical and emotional harm Rob Divenanzo had to endure while stranded in the Dominican Republic for nearly eight months in 2022. It has been pointed out that the victims continue to suffer physical and psychological damage.
“I will never be the same,” said Mr. DiVenanzo, who is represented by prominent attorney Marie Henein of the law firm of Henein Hutchison Robitaille. “It’s changed me. I really feel like I’m not as happy as I used to be. I’ve made a lot of progress in the time since I’ve been back, but I’m definitely different.”
Shortly after they reported finding about $25 million worth of drugs on board the chartered flight, DiVenanzo and four other crew members were jailed for nine days and then released under house arrest in the Dominican Republic.
Under constant threat, they had to be transferred to multiple safe houses and subjected to round-the-clock armed security.
At one point over the months, he and his crew were so desperate for help that they publicly petitioned the Prime Minister to be released. Still, nothing happened.
Then, more than seven months and days after the W5 team began questioning them on the ground in the Dominican Republic, their case was mysteriously dropped and they were allowed to return home.
The claim cited numerous failures at all levels of government to protect and ensure his safety, with the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs “doing little to ensure Captain DiVenanzo’s prompt return to Canada.” points out.
“If this can happen to five airline crew members, it can happen to anyone in the general public,” DiVenanzo said. “I think the public needs to know that. And I think the public and I both need answers. What happened? What was the problem? Why were we put in that position? And why didn’t they get help from anyone but us?” [W5]? ”
W5 contacted Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly for comment, but did not receive a response by deadline.
RCMP: ‘Putting Canadians at risk’
The complaint also alleged that the RCMP “put Canadian citizens at risk in a foreign country and failed to warn Captain DiVenanzo or take reasonable steps to protect him from this grave danger.”
W5’s investigation revealed that RCMP knew that cocaine could be transported from the Dominican Republic to Toronto on a chartered flight. The investigation also revealed that in the months before the incident in the Dominican Republic, RCMP had investigated at least two passengers on a chartered flight with extensive ties to drug trafficking in Alberta.
RCMP said they were not in a position to comment as the matter was before the courts.
“There’s no due diligence.”
The filing also held his former employer, Pivot Airlines, responsible for “conducting virtually no due diligence” to “ensure the safety of Pivot employees.”
This is about 200,000 yen that Pivot Airlines received from a man named John Strudwick, the CFO of a company called Trust Capital, as payment for a series of charter flights from Toronto to the Dominican Republic in early 2022. Derived from the dollar. This was later revealed by W5. The company name and CFO were fake, and the payments were made by a man in Edmonton.
The complaint alleges that Pivot Airlines “knew or should have known that Trust Capital was a sham company that chartered Pivot’s plane to smuggle drugs to Toronto… “He knew that he was in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or worse.”
Pivot Airlines did not respond to W5’s request for comment by deadline.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
