A few days before Grammy-nominated saxophonist and flautist Jane Bunnett was set to debut new music at Koerner Hall, she found herself in a challenging situation. Porter Airlines, she claims, left her dealing with broken instruments and an unexpected financial burden.
Bunnett, 68, a Juno Award winner and Order of Canada recipient, had been planning the “Warm Winds From Cuba” concert for nearly a year. The event was meant to showcase her ensemble, Maqueque, alongside pianist Hilario Durán. It also featured the Canadian debuts of Orlando “Maraca” Valle, known as the dean of Cuban flute, and the Santiago Jazz Saxophon (or Magic Sax) Quartet. Bunnett and her husband, Larry Cramer, first met the quartet in Santiago de Cuba in 1999 during their inaugural visit to the island.
“This show was a big thank you to Cuba,” Bunnett explained. She and Cramer had promised the Santiago musicians, who performed on her Grammy-nominated 2001 album Alma De Santiago, that they would bring them to Canada. “This is about fulfilling the promise after 25 years,” she added.
However, organizing the concert has been far from easy. From arranging visas for the musicians to facing airline issues, Bunnett encountered several roadblocks.
The first challenge arose when Bunnett and Cramer tried to arrange visas in Cuba for saxophonists Juan Chacón González, Julio César González Simon, Ray Amaury Burgos Delís, and Juan Felix Vasquez Gelis, who didn’t speak English. Bunnett had handled visas effortlessly for 40 years, but recent challenges, including the impacts of COVID-19 and Hurricane Rafael in 2024, had crippled Cuba’s tourism industry, causing disruptions in visa processing.
“There’s no processing any visas in Cuba — you have to go to Mexico,” Bunnett explained. The musicians had to make a 17-hour train journey from Santiago to Havana just to begin the process. Furthermore, the Toronto-based couple had to cover all expenses for the musicians’ travel, accommodations, and meals — even for a second return trip to Havana due to further paperwork delays.
Six weeks ago, only two of the quartet’s members had received their visa approvals. “I needed visas,” Bunnett said. “If I don’t have visas, I can’t buy flights.”
In an effort to resolve the issue, Bunnett reached out to Andrew Bevan, national campaign director for the Liberal Party and a neighbor in Lake St. Peter. Bevan connected her with Mike Burton, chief of staff at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, who helped resolve the visa issues.
But even after booking flights, new problems emerged. On February 20, the four saxophonists and flautist Valle were booked on a Sunwing Airlines flight from Varadero, Cuba, to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. However, Sunwing canceled the flight without notice, forcing Bunnett to find an alternative. She eventually secured a February 21 Air Transat flight to Montreal, followed by a connecting Porter flight to Toronto. This cost an additional $2,000 per person.
However, the Porter connecting flight was also canceled without explanation, leaving the musicians stranded at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport. Without credit cards, they had not eaten in two days, and no food or accommodation vouchers were offered.
Porter Airlines spokesperson Brad Cicero explained in an email to the Star that the flight cancellation occurred due to “ongoing runway closures at Toronto Pearson related to the Delta Air Lines incident,” which meant passengers were not entitled to compensation. “We apologize if this was unclear due to language issues,” he added.
Bunnett scrambled to help the stranded musicians by wiring $1,000 to Montreal-based Cuban pianist Rafael Zaldivar, who took the musicians to a restaurant while Bunnett sought accommodations. “This show has just broken me financially,” she confessed.
With her credit card maxed out, Bunnett contacted Koerner Hall, which helped the musicians get a few hours of rest at the nearby Montreal Folk Alliance. On February 22, they finally boarded a 6:50 a.m. flight that got them to Billy Bishop Airport at 8:15 a.m.
To make matters worse, Delís and Gelis arrived in Toronto without their luggage, including their tenor and baritone saxophones. Bunnett claims she contacted “at least five people” at Porter but couldn’t get a satisfactory answer about the missing items.
“They kept telling me it was due ‘to the circumstances created by the snow,’” Bunnett said. “They weren’t able to tell me whether the instruments were in Montreal or at Pearson. How could they lose a baritone sax? It’s the size of a Shetland pony. It’s a huge, honkin’ instrument.”
By February 26, both the tenor and baritone saxophones were found, but they were damaged and, in Bunnett’s words, “unplayable.”
Bunnett says Porter has not mentioned any compensation for the damage. However, Cicero stated in an email that the airline is continually assessing the situation. “The extent of any damage has not yet been determined, so potential compensation will be considered as the case is further examined. We will continue working directly with the passengers on this.”
According to Porter’s policy, instruments cannot be purchased seats, but they may be carried as long as they meet certain conditions: in a hard-shell case, weighing no more than 9 kg, and fitting under the seat or in the overhead bin. Bunnett confirmed that the saxophones were checked in at the gate.
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