Close X
Sunday, November 24, 2024
ADVT 
National

Deportation hearing set for truck driver in deadly Saskatchewan hockey team bus crash

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 08 Apr, 2024 12:13 PM
  • Deportation hearing set for truck driver in deadly Saskatchewan hockey team bus crash

A deportation hearing for the truck driver who caused the deadly Humboldt Broncos bus crash six years ago has been scheduled for next month. 

Lawyer Michael Greene said Monday the hearing for his client Jaskirat Singh Sidhu is to be held May 24.

"It was an inevitability. I mean, the (immigration) minister could always decide not to go ahead with it, but it doesn't seem to be happening at this point anyway," Greene said in an interview.

"There's nothing to contest. You're convicted or you're not. All they have to establish is he's not a citizen and that he was convicted."

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 from India, 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 full parole last year.

In December, the Federal Court dismissed applications from Sidhu's lawyer, who argued Canada Border Services officials didn’t consider Sidhu’s previously clean criminal record and remorse. He had asked for the agency to be ordered to conduct a second review.

Greene said the deportation hearings usually only take a few minutes. After that happens, he said the real work begins.

"Once he ceases to be a permanent resident then he can file an application on humanitarian grounds. Our goal is to do that fairly quickly," Greene said.

"How long it takes after that is the great unknown. It could be months. It could be years."

Greene said once a person is ordered deported, there is then a pre-removal risk assessment conducted and that usually takes a few months. He said Sidhu can also ask for a deferral while his request for permanent resident status is considered.

"The wheels of justice move slowly at times. It's been playing out over six years now," Greene said.

"We're cautiously optimistic. You can't erase the fact of the conviction and damage done.

"But everything else about him is positive and there's a lot of community support, although there are some people who can't and will never forgive."

MORE National ARTICLES

Bell media is slashing 4800 jobs across the country

Bell media is slashing 4800 jobs across the country
A Bell executive is linking the major cuts parent company B-C-E announced this morning to federal government policies. Robert Malcolmson says the company needs immediate relief, which could come from a fund it has proposed that would see streamers subsidize local or national news.

Bell media is slashing 4800 jobs across the country

When the sun goes down, a swarm of rats emerges in downtown Vancouver

When the sun goes down, a swarm of rats emerges in downtown Vancouver
When the sun goes down, the rats of Vancouver's Burrard Skytrain Station emerge, in a scurrying blur of fur and whipping tails. Dozens of them, large and small, scamper around a park in front of the downtown station, running up and down the stairs among the legs of commuters and a wary reporter. Some appear to be feasting on birdseed scattered on the ground.

When the sun goes down, a swarm of rats emerges in downtown Vancouver

PM hints at tougher penalties for car thieves as feds seek ideas at national summit

PM hints at tougher penalties for car thieves as feds seek ideas at national summit
The Liberal government will consider tougher criminal penalties for people who steal vehicles, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday as he kicked off a daylong summit aimed at confronting the scourge of auto theft.

PM hints at tougher penalties for car thieves as feds seek ideas at national summit

Former RCMP intelligence official sentenced to 14 years for breaking secrets law

Former RCMP intelligence official sentenced to 14 years for breaking secrets law
A former RCMP intelligence official has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for breaching Canada's secrets law in what the judge called a case without precedent. Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger handed the sentence Wednesday to Cameron Jay Ortis, who was found guilty in November of violating the Security of Information Act.  

Former RCMP intelligence official sentenced to 14 years for breaking secrets law

Sex offender missing from halfway house

Sex offender missing from halfway house
Vancouver police say  a man considered a high risk and violent sex offender is missing after he failed to check in to his halfway house yesterday. They say 36-year-old Johnny Walkus is wanted Canada-wide.

Sex offender missing from halfway house

Liberals' proposed AI law too vague

Liberals' proposed AI law too vague
Representatives from Big Tech companies say a Liberal government bill that would begin regulating some artificial intelligence systems is too vague.  Amazon and Microsoft executives told MPs at a House of Commons industry committee meeting Wednesday that Bill C-27 doesn't differentiate enough between high- and low-risk AI systems.

Liberals' proposed AI law too vague