Brink’s is appealing a federal court ruling ordering Air Canada to pay them almost $19,000 following a $20 million gold heist two years ago from Pearson airport.
The security company sued the airline after a shipment of 6,600 gold bars from Zurich, Switzerland, was stolen on April 17, 2023, when someone presented a forged document to collect the goods from an Air Canada holding facility at the airport.
In its original 2024 lawsuit, Brink’s argued it was due almost US$15 million after Air Canada failed to properly secure the cargo and properly examine and authenticate the document used when the goods were stolen. Brink’s said it made a “special declaration of interest” when it booked the cargo using the airline’s AC Secure, a service provided by the airline for the transportation of valuable cargo.
Air Canada claimed the security company failed to declare the monetary value of the cargo on its waybill under the “Declared Value for Carriage.”
Federal Court Justice Cecily Strickland ruled on January 20, 2025 that while the evidence confirmed that Brink’s did convey to Air Canada that what they were shipping was considered “valuable,” it did not provide the airline with the monetary value of the cargo.
Air Canada was ordered to pay 9,988 in Special Drawing Rights, a form of international money created by the International Monetary Fund, which exceeds $18,600 Canadian.
Brink’s appeal questions whether the monetary limit of liability set out in the Montreal Convention applies to the facts of this case. It is also seeking more than $21 million ($14,988,920.58USD) from Air Canada.
No date has been set for the appeal.
Nine people, including Air Canada employees, face almost two dozen charges in connection with the case, described as the largest gold heist in Canadian history and reportedly the sixth-largest in world crime history.
