By Bill Graveland
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 for permanent resident status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
Chris Joseph of St. Albert, Alta., whose 20-year-old son, Jaxon, was 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."
Banner image: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kayle Neis
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 14, 2023.
