Trucker who caused Broncos crash likely to be deported after sentence: lawyer

An immigration lawyer says the truck driver who caused the deadly Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan is likely to be deported to India right after he serves his sentence.

Lorne Waldman, who is based in Toronto and is not involved in the case, says there's little 30-year-old Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, of Calgary, can do to remain in Canada.

Waldman says permanent residents such as Sidhu cannot remain in the country if they commit a crime for which the maximum sentence is at least 10 years or their jail sentence is more than six months.

And he says that with a term of more than six months, there's no right to appeal a deportation order.

Sidhuwas sentenced to eight years in prison today in Melfort, Sask., for dangerous driving after pleading guilty in January.

His transport truck barreled through a stop sign and into the path of the junior hockey team's bus last April. The ensuing crash killed 16 people and injured 13 others.

He admitted to 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death and13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm which under thelaw at the time carry maximum terms of 14 years and 10 years.

It was such a serious offence, and the consequences were sogreat, that I would think it would be hard for him to be successfulin convincing someone not to proceed with a deportation process against him.- Immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman

The Crown has asked that Sidhu serve 10 years in prison and thedefence has argued that past cases suggest a range of 1 to 4 years.

Sidhu's sentencing hearing heard that his girlfriend immigratedto Toronto in 2013 and he followed her shortly after. The pair werestudents and moved to Calgary.

In January 2018, the couple travelled back to India and weremarried Feb. 15. They returned to Canada in March. Three weeksbefore the crash, he was hired by a small Calgary trucking company.

Waldman said Sidhu would have the right to make a submission toimmigration authorities explaining his situation before deportationproceedings were to begin but it would be a long shot.

"The facts of this case are extremely sympathetic if it were notfor the horrible consequences of what happened. It was a one-timelapse no drinking, no other criminal offences," he said.

"But it was such a serious offence, and the consequences were sogreat, that I would think it would be hard for him to be successfulin convincing someone not to proceed with a deportation process against him."

Waldman said immigration authorities usually visit offenders injail, where they're informed they are inadmissible to stay inCanada, that a report has been written and that they have threeweeks to send submissions.

"Immigration authorities will not wait. They'll probably startthe deportation process relatively quickly," Waldman said.

But a deportation order isn't acted upon until an offender isreleased.

Such offenders are banned from ever returning to Canada unlessthey can persuade authorities when reapplying that theirs is aspecial humanitarian case.