Driver Sentenced for Humboldt Broncos Bus Collision Loses Bid to Stay in Canada

A lawyer for a semi-truck driver convicted in the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan says his client is a step closer to being deported from Canada. 

Michael Greene told the media that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada rejected one of the last attempts to allow Jaskirat Singh Sidhu to stay in Canada. Sidhu is facing deportation over his conviction of dangerous driving offences. He has a wife and two children in Canada and was a permanent resident when he arrived in 2014.

Sidhu had been working as a new truck driver for a Calgary company for about three weeks when the crash happened near Tisdale, Sask., in April 2018, about 185 kilometres north of Regina.

He drove through a stop sign and into the path of a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team.

The bus crash killed 16 people, including 10 junior hockey team players, two coaches, and an athletic therapist, a statistician, a radio announcer, and the bus driver.

Thirteen others on the bus were injured in the collision. The team was on its way to compete in a playoff series in a nearby community.

Sidhu was not hurt in the crash and was detained briefly by police at the scene.

Sidhu pleaded guilty to dangerous driving offences and was given an eight-year prison sentence in 2019. Permanent residents are not eligible to stay in the country if they receive a criminal conviction with a sentence of more than six months.

The tragedy was felt across Canada, with then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying the entire country was in mourning. At the time, U.S. President Donald Trump was serving his first term and offered his “highest respect and condolences” to the families of the players.

Sidhu was granted full parole in 2023, and the Immigration and Refugee Board ordered he be deported in 2024.

Sidhu’s lawyer said his client learned on Wednesday that a pre-removal risk assessment was rejected and that they are considering next steps, including challenging the decision or requesting for Sidhu’s permanent resident status to be granted on humanitarian grounds so the family does not have to be separated.

The Canadian Press and Reuters contributed to this report.