Canada: Indian-origin truck driver involved in 2018 bus crash that killed 16 ordered to be deported

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According to Canada-based CBC News, a truck driver of Indian descent who caused a horrifying bus disaster in Canada that involved the junior hockey team of the Humboldt Broncos has been ordered to be deported. At a Calgary hearing, the Immigration and Refugee Board declared Jaskirat Singh Sidhu's status.

According to Sidhu's attorney Michael Greene, the judgement was inevitable because Sidhu only needed to show that he was a serious criminal and that he wasn't a Canadian citizen to be deported. According to a CBC News story, Jaskirat Singh Sidhu is an Indian national with permanent residency status in Canada.

After receiving an eight-year sentence for reckless driving in a bus accident in Saskatchewan in 2018 that resulted in the deaths of sixteen people and the injuries of thirteen more, Sidhu was granted parole. According to his attorney, there are still several pending legal matters, and the deportation process may take several months or perhaps years.

Earlier in December, the Federal Court rejected applications from Sidhu's lawyer, who had said that border officials did not consider Sidhu's previously clean criminal record and remorse. He wanted the court to direct the border agency to carry out a second review.

Before the hearing on Friday, Greene said, "This is part of the sadness of the whole process. We're left with a situation where permanent residents have no rights whatsoever to have their personal circumstances considered," CBC News reported.

Sidhu's lawyer added, "Our only mechanism is [that] after he's ordered deported, we're going to ask them to give back his [permanent resident] status [based] on humanitarian grounds. He said, "But in the meantime, he has no status."

Michael Greene said Sidhu will not be taken into custody immediately after the hearing is over. He stated that a pre-removal risk assessment has to be carried out and Sidhu can request a deferral while his request for permanent resident status is considered.

He noted that the process could take months or years. Several family members of those killed in the bus crash said they want the deportation of Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, the report said.

According to a CBC News report, Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, a newly married permanent resident from India, barrelled through a stop sign at a rural intersection near Tisdale, Saskatchewan in 2018, and drove into the path of the bus carrying the junior hockey team to a playoff game.

(With Inputs from ANI)