A Canadian airline cancelled a flight from Victoria to Toronto after a child refused to wear a seatbelt.

The child was standing in their chair as the 6 August Porter Airlines flight taxied towards the runway, the airline said. Repeated attempts by an accompanying parent and crew to secure the child in their seat failed, so the crew elected to return to the terminal and have the two passengers disembark as "the aircraft could not take off in this unsafe condition", it added.

Brad Cicero, a spokesperson for the airline, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that all passengers had to disembark, as the time needed to remove only the child and their parent and refile paperwork meant the plane could not take off before the airport closed at 12:30am.

"We apologise for the effect this had on other passengers, who were able to depart on a flight the following day," he told the broadcaster.

Passenger Aryeh Kozuch told the Canadian Press that the child was not being unruly, and that online comments admonishing the parents did not "empathetically capture the situation".

"They just kept hiding under their seat," he said. "If they got forced into [being] strapped in, they just kind of slid out underneath."

"This was a child that was in a tube with 150 people … They're obviously terrified, and their response was to try and hide under the seat in front of them," he said. "That's so different than a kid running around and screaming."

Hillary Hertzberg, another passenger, said the airline could have acted faster. "It took for ever," Hertzberg told CBC. "The kid eventually got off the plane at 11.30 so we had been on the flight for almost an hour at that point."

Porter Airlines said passengers were rebooked on a different flight the following day.