Semi driver in Broncos bus crash loses first bid to stay in Canada

The truck driver involved in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash nearly four years ago has lost one of his bids to stay in Canada after his sentence ends.

Jaskirat Singh Sidhu’s lawyer sent an application to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in 2021, asking that his client be allowed to remain in the country following the conclusion of his prison sentence.

In an email Wednesday, a senior communications adviser for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada said the CBSA had referred the case to the IRB for an admissibility hearing.

“When this happens, a member (decision-maker) of the Immigration Division holds a hearing in the case to determine whether the allegations against the referred person are founded, and if so, issues a removal order,” Anna Pape wrote in the email. “In cases of serious criminality, a deportation order is issued.”

Pape stressed the IRB has yet to rule on the case and, in fact, hasn’t even scheduled a hearing.

Sidhu now could face deportation to India once he serves out his sentence. However, reports say Sidhu plans to challenge the CBSA’s decision in federal court, and he has other possible avenues to remain in the country as well.

Some of the Broncos families have supported Sidhu’s bid to stay in Canada, while others say he should be deported.

Sidhu was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death and bodily harm in the April 2018 collision that killed 16 people and injured 13.

The SJHL’s Broncos were en route to a playoff game in Nipawin when their bus collided with a semi driven by Sidhu, who had gone through a stop sign at the intersection of two highways near Tisdale.

Brons reacts to news

Carol Brons isn’t sure what effect this most recent development will have on her almost four years after the tragedy.

“I don’t have a stand one way or the other. I haven’t been able to put the energy into coming to a decision,” she said Wednesday.

Brons lost her 24-year-old daughter, Dayna, in the crash. Dayna was the Broncos’ athletic therapist.

“It’s not ever going to go away. It’s always going to be part of my life; it’s part of who I am now,” Carol Brons said. “The trauma of all of this, for anyone who has lost a child, it changes them.”