A judge dismissed applications on Thursday from the truck driver who caused the deadly Humboldt Broncos bus crash and was fighting deportation back to India.
Jaskirat Singh Sidhu was sentenced to eight years in prison for causing the 2018 crash in Saskatchewan that killed 16 people and injured 13 others. He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving charges.
The rookie Calgary trucker, a newly married permanent resident, barrelled through a stop sign at a rural intersection near Tisdale, Sask., and drove into the path of the bus carrying the junior hockey team to a playoff game.
Sidhu was granted parole earlier this year and the Canada Border Services Agency had recommended he be deported.
Sidhu’s lawyer, Michael Greene, argued before Federal Court in September that border services officials didn’t consider Sidhu’s previously clean criminal record and remorse.
Greene asked that the agency be ordered to conduct a second review of the case and set aside the decision.
“The facts underlying Mr. Sidhu’s applications to this court were devastating for everyone involved. Many lives were lost, others were torn apart, and many hopes and dreams were shattered,” Chief Justice Paul Crampton wrote in his decision.
“Unfortunately, nothing this court decides can change much of those truly tragic consequences.”
Crampton said border officials were fair in their assessment and addressed both Sidhu’s record and “extraordinary degree of genuine, heart-wrenching remorse.”
“The officer’s decision was appropriately justified, transparent and intelligible,” Crampton wrote. “It also reflected an internally coherent and rational chain of analysis, and meaningfully engaged with the key issues raised by Mr. Sidhu.”
He said Sidhu now faces removal to India, after spending years of hard work establishing a life with his wife in Canada.
The judge added that Sidhu can still ask to be allowed to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
No ill feelings, but ‘we want him gone’: father
Toby Boulet’s 21-year-old son, Logan, was killed in the crash. For him, moving forward doesn’t mean Sidhu must stay in prison, but he doesn’t want him in Canada.
“We have no ill feelings toward the man — we just don’t want to see him ever again,” Boulet told CBC from his home in Lethbridge, Alta.
“We don’t want to run into him. We don’t want to have an actual incidental passing with the gentleman. We want him gone — and gone means, in this case, deported.”
Chris Joseph of St. Albert, Alta., whose 20-year-old son, Jaxon, was also killed in the crash, had been calling for Sidhu’s deportation.
“It’s the right decision and sends the right message,” Joseph said Thursday after learning of the judge’s ruling.
“It’s been five years of pain for our family and many other families.… For all of us, it’s been ongoing pain that’s never left.”
However, not all family members of those killed in the crash agree that Sidhu should be deported.
Scott Thomas, the father of Evan Thomas, 18, has forgiven Sidhu and long advocated for him to remain in Canada. However, he’s not surprised that it’s becoming increasingly likely Sidhu will be deported.
“He’s in a prison in his mind for the rest of his life, so to our family, it doesn’t matter where he is,” said Thomas.
“Whether he’s here or over in India, I think he’s going to suffer with his actions and the consequences of those for the rest of his life.”
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