Kamal Ghorui
Indian-origin Jaskirat Singh Sidhu was the man behind the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash that killed 16 players and staff of the Saskatchewan junior hockey team and injured 13 others. He could soon be deported back to India as he exhausted all his legal options to remain in Canada. In an exclusive interview with the CBC, Sidhu said he wants to fight for his family as he would be sent back to India, but not his wife and kids. Sidhu married Tanvir Mann, a nurse in Canada, months before the 2018 accident. Now they are parents to a three-year-old son and a three-month-old daughter. The son was born with a rare lung disorder and according to the CBC report, doctors told the couple that living in India’s air quality would put him at risk. “Nobody wants to be separated from their family, you know?” Sidhu said. “I want my husband with me. I want the father of my kids with us, so he can contribute. He can see his kids growing, all those tiny moments,” Sidhu’s wife said. Sidhu’s immigration lawyer Michael Greene filed an application for Sidhu to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, as he has young children who would be affected if Sidhu were deported.While CBC ran an exclusive interview with Sidhu and his family, National Post carried an opinion piece where the writers argued that Sidhu “paid his debt to society” and hence should not be deported. One of the writers is John Manley, a former deputy PM of Canada. “At worst, this was a case of catastrophic negligence. It was not an intentional act of violence. The court treated it accordingly, imposing a sentence that reflected the scale of harm and the absence of intent. Given the extreme remorse of the driver, and his willingness to submit to the court’s punishment, it’s time for his punishment to end and the healing to begin,” the piece said. “Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, had 70 safety violations in the 11 days leading up to his dangerous driving. He killed 16 people and seriously injuring 13 others in the Humboldt massacre. He wasn’t even legally allowed to be DRIVING. More toxic empathy from legacy media,” a Canadian journalist wrote, condemning the media’s campaign against Sidhu’s proposed deportation. Sidhu pleaded guilty for the crash and served four years in prison. He has been on full parole since 2023. On April 6, 2018, a double-trailer semi-truck driven by Jaskirat Singh Sidhu blew through a stop sign at a rural intersection in Saskatchewan, Canada, and collided with a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos players and staff, injuring 13 people and killing 16, most of them teenagers, including Chris Joseph’s son, Jaxon.After pleading guilty and serving roughly four years in prison, Sidhu has been on full parole since 2023. However, he has continued to dominate headlines, fighting tooth and nail not to be deported back to India.One of the victims of the crash was hockey player Jazon Joseph. In an interview with Media Bezirgan, his father Chris Jodesph said Sidhu is not the remorseful man the media portrays him to be, but a “selfish” one. “Everybody has told him he should be deported — the judge, the CBSA, the Immigration and Refugee Board, the Federal Court of Appeal — and he still keeps trying, because he is looking out for himself and he really doesn’t care about anybody else,” Joseph said.
