Indian-origin driver who caused deadly crash in Canada in 2018 loses latest bid to stay in country
Ottawa (PTI): An Indian-origin rookie truck driver who caused a deadly crash which killed 16 people in Canada's Saskatchewan province in 2018 has lost his bid to stay in the country, according to media reports.
Jaskirat Singh Sidhu was sentenced to eight years in prison after his semi-trailer truck failed to stop at a highway intersection on April 6, 2018, killing 16 people and injuring 13 on the bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos hockey team and others en route to a playoff game.
He was granted parole earlier this year, and the Canada Border Services Agency had recommended he be deported to India, the CBC reported on Thursday.
On Thursday, a judge dismissed Sidhu's applications for the agency to be ordered to conduct a second review of the case and set aside its earlier decision, according to the report.
Sidhu was new to truck driving and had been on the job less than a month before the tragedy in 2018, CTV News reported.
His lawyer, Michael Greene, argued before the Federal Court in September that border services officials did not consider Sidhu's previously clean criminal record and remorse.
Chief Justice Paul Crampton wrote in his decision that border officials were fair in their assessment and addressed both Sidhu's record and "extraordinary degree of genuine, heart-wrenching remorse."
"The officer's decision was appropriately justified, transparent and intelligible," the report cited Crampton's decision.
The judge said Sidhu now faces removal to India after spending years of hard work establishing a life with his wife in Canada.
He added that Sidhu can still ask to be allowed to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, according to the report.
Toby Boulet, whose 21-year-old son, Logan, was killed in the crash, said that he doesn't want Sidhu in Canada.
"We have no ill feelings toward the man we just don't want to see him ever again," Boulet was quoted as saying in the report.
"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," he said.
Chris Joseph, 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 was quoted as saying in the report.
"It's been five years of pain for our family and many other families. For all of us, it's been ongoing pain that's never left," he said.
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Govt using women's quota pretext to push delimitation: TMC
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New Delhi (PTI): The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday accused the government of using the pretext of early implementation of women's reservation law to "bulldoze" its "real agenda of delimitation".
The TMC said it has always supported women's reservation, but the government cannot "rush" through a bill that will "change the political map" of India based on the 2011 Census.
Parliament is set to meet from April 16 to 18 to consider bills to ensure the implementation of the 33 per cent quota in legislative bodies for women in the 2029 elections. It includes increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816 seats, with 273 seats reserved for women, and amendments to the Delimitation Act to enable redrawing of constituencies.
In a post on X, TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien shared a video of his earlier speech on the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, 2023 -- also known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam -- and underlined his party’s long-standing advocacy for women’s reservation.
He recalled that TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had raised the issue in Parliament as early as July 14, 1998.
Highlighting his party’s track record, O’Brien pointed to the proportion of women candidates fielded and elected by the TMC, stating that the party had given 41 per cent tickets to women in 2014 and currently has one of the highest shares of women MPs.
"Modi govt cannot rush through a bill in a special parliament session bang in the middle of Assembly Polls, a bill that will change the political map of India based on the 2011 census (data which is fifteen years old) in 2026 without greater discussion (sic)," TMC Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Sagarika Ghose said on X.
"Mr Modi-Shah must be reminded: India is not a single-party democracy. Bulldozing and bullying is against the parliamentary spirit," she said.
In a post on X, TMC leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale accused the government of running a "fake and malicious agenda " claiming it wants “early reservations for women in Parliament”.
"In reality, Modi is using women as an excuse to bulldoze his real agenda of delimitation (which is redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha & Assembly seats in states to benefit the BJP)," he alleged.
He said that at the time of passage of the bill on women's reservation in 2023, opposition parties had expressed concern that its implementation would be delayed, but the government had ignored them, and said it would happen after the Census in 2026.
"Now, suddenly, just when Bengal and Tamil Nadu are going to elections, Modi decides that delimitation will be done before the 2026 Census. Instead of conducting delimitation based on India’s actual population, the Modi government has come up with its own unknown formula," he said.
He questioned the connection between delimitation and women's reservation, and what is stopping the government from implementing it on the existing 543 seats without delimitation.
The Union Cabinet has cleared draft bills to operationalise the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam ahead of the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. The proposed changes include increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816 seats, with 273 seats reserved for women.
The legislative package is expected to include a Constitution amendment bill to modify provisions of the Act, alongside amendments to the Delimitation Act to enable redrawing of constituencies in line with the expanded House strength.
Another bill is also likely to extend the implementation of the reservation framework to Union Territories with legislatures, including Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry.
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