A judge in Canada recently dismissed the applications of Indian-origin truck driver Jaskirat Singh Sidhu who was fighting deportation back to India.
He had caused the deadly Humboldt Broncos bus crash on April 6, 2018.
Jaskirat Singh Sidhu was sentenced to eight years in prison for causing the crash in Saskatchewan that killed 16 people and injured 13 others. He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving charges, reports CBC News.
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, the Canadian media reported.
The Indian-origin driver was granted parole and the Canada Border Services Agency had recommended his deportation this year.
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, CBC News reported.
Greene asked if the agency should 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 as quoted by CBC News.
The issue has also drawn reactions from those who were killed in the incident.
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 told CBC News after learning of the judge’s ruling.