That is a disgusting thing to do.  A family of four should not be broken up and the compensation needs to be for the entire group, at a minimum.  I fly a lot of Air Canada but I will now start looking at WestJet.  

In general, agreed with the post about law required to ensure good corporate behaviour.  Without more competition, this is essentially a crown corporation whether they behave as such or not...so they should have crown rules of decorum...which they currently do not.