A federal judge has dismissed a bid to avoid deportation of Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, the truck driver who was responsible for the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy in 2018.
The Canada Border Services Agency has recommended that Sidhu be deported to India.
Sidhu was handed an eight-year sentence in 2019 after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death and bodily harm in the Saskatchewan crash that killed 16 people and injured 13 others.
The Calgary trucker, a newly married permanent resident, and new to driving, 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 is a permanent resident, and under federal law, can be subject to deportation in the instance of a serious criminal offence. He was granted parole earlier this year.
His lawyer, Michael Greene, pleaded that the Canada Border Services Agency’s recommendation for his deportation be stopped. Greene, argued before Federal Court in September that border services officials didn’t consider Sidhu’s previously clean criminal record and remorse, asking for the agency to be order to conduct a second review.
Rejecting Sidhu’s plea, Chief Justice Paul Crampton wrote in his 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.
“Unfortunately, nothing this court decides can change much of those truly tragic consequences.”
Justifying the decision to deport Sidhu to India, the judge said, “The officer’s decision was appropriately justified, transparent and intelligible. It also reflected an internally coherent and rational chain of analysis, and meaningfully engaged with the key issues raised by Mr. Sidhu.”
The judge added that Sidhu can still ask for permanent resident status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Sidhu’s lawyer said that he planed to apply to have his permanent resident status reinstated on humanitarian grounds. “Now it’s the Immigration and Citizenship (Department) that will decide. It’s a different agency entirely with a different mandate and different considerations,” Greene said.