Plus he will be deported upon completion of his sentence.
Somehow I didn't know or completely forgot that him being deported was even on the table.... I'm not sure I get the point of putting him in prison for 8 years and then deporting him. They should just deport him now IMO. I suppose that wouldn't satisfy the families?
It’s appropriate that he serve his sentence in Canada for events that occurred in Canada, as a general rule. Once someone is deported there’s no guarantee what might happen to them, and no obligation on the part of the country the person is returning to .
Yeah, i assumed he would not go to prison if deported when I said that. It is expensive to keep people in prison. If no rehabilitation or anything is going to benefit Canada upon his release, I figure it would be best to just send him back to where he came from and Canada doesn't have to worry about it either way, and the punishment is banishment from Canada.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
Plus he will be deported upon completion of his sentence.
Somehow I didn't know or completely forgot that him being deported was even on the table.... I'm not sure I get the point of putting him in prison for 8 years and then deporting him. They should just deport him now IMO. I suppose that wouldn't satisfy the families?
According to the news this morning, any sentence over 6 months, and any crime that carries a 10 year or longer sentence leads to automatic deportation of non-Canadian citizens and he would never be allowed back in Canada, even as a visitor. He will not serve 8 years, I imagine with good behaviour he will be out in 5-6 years. I tend to think the prison term is necessary as a deterrent to other drivers who violate the log books that lead to this tragedy. Pretty soon every truck in Canada will have electronic logs, which may have prevented this tragedy.
Plus he will be deported upon completion of his sentence.
Somehow I didn't know or completely forgot that him being deported was even on the table.... I'm not sure I get the point of putting him in prison for 8 years and then deporting him. They should just deport him now IMO. I suppose that wouldn't satisfy the families?
According to the news this morning, any sentence over 6 months, and any crime that carries a 10 year or longer sentence leads to automatic deportation of non-Canadian citizens and he would never be allowed back in Canada, even as a visitor. He will not serve 8 years, I imagine with good behaviour he will be out in 5-6 years. I tend to think the prison term is necessary as a deterrent to other drivers who violate the log books that lead to this tragedy. Pretty soon every truck in Canada will have electronic logs, which may have prevented this tragedy.
Pretty soon every truck won't have a driver at all, lol.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
Plus he will be deported upon completion of his sentence.
Somehow I didn't know or completely forgot that him being deported was even on the table.... I'm not sure I get the point of putting him in prison for 8 years and then deporting him. They should just deport him now IMO. I suppose that wouldn't satisfy the families?
According to the news this morning, any sentence over 6 months, and any crime that carries a 10 year or longer sentence leads to automatic deportation of non-Canadian citizens and he would never be allowed back in Canada, even as a visitor. He will not serve 8 years, I imagine with good behaviour he will be out in 5-6 years. I tend to think the prison term is necessary as a deterrent to other drivers who violate the log books that lead to this tragedy. Pretty soon every truck in Canada will have electronic logs, which may have prevented this tragedy.
Pretty soon every truck won't have a driver at all, lol.
When Jaskirat Singh Sidhu ran a stop sign and crashed into a bus carrying a Canadian hockey team, he caused an accident that took 16 lives and left 13 more people seriously injured. A year later, the father of one of his victims reflects on the meaning of forgiveness.
Scott Thomas has told this story countless times.
How he was riding in the car with Cal Hobbs, another hockey dad, on the way to the Humboldt Broncos' game against the Nipawin Hawks on 6 April 2018.
How Hobbs's son Declan, the goalie for the Hawks, called his father just hours before the puck was set to drop.
How Declan, on speakerphone, said, "Don't bother coming: the game's cancelled. There's been a bad bus accident," before breaking down in tears.
How they drove to the crash site in silence, save for the blare of the ambulance sirens and the whir of helicopters overhead.
"I just got this impending feeling of doom," Thomas told the BBC, in an interview almost a year after the accident.
Thomas's son Evan was killed, along with 15 others, when a semi-trailer driven by Jaskirat Singh Sidhu crashed into the bus carrying the Broncos team and staff.
Thirteen others were injured, some permanently.
On Friday, Sidhu was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to 29 charges of dangerous driving, causing death and bodily harm.
He was not speeding, intoxicated or on his cellphone when he ran through a flashing stop sign at the intersection, colliding with the front half of the bus. He had been on the job one month.
The 29-year-old man grew up on a farm in India and moved to Canada in 2013, where he became a permanent resident, according to the CBC.
He could face deportation.
"I take full responsibility for what has happened," he told the victims' families when he pleaded guilty in January.
"It happened because of my lack of experience, and I am so, so, so, so sorry
During his sentencing hearing, family members described a range of feelings towards the man responsible for so many deaths.
"I despise you for taking my baby away from me," Andrea Joseph told the court through anguished sobs. "You don't deserve my forgiveness. You shouldn't have been driving."
Others offered forgiveness, including the wife of the team's coach, who also perished.
"I want to tell you I forgive you," Christina Haugan said. "I have been forgiven for things when I didn't deserve it, so I will do the same."
Despite these conflicting feelings, Thomas says the extended victims of the crash have formed their own kind of "family", and they talk nearly every day on WhatsApp or online.
Until now, Thomas - who met Sidhu privately in January - has preferred to keep his own feelings to himself. He is concerned that if he reveals too much about what happened in their intense, brief encounter, it could persuade the judge one way or another and alienate members of the "family".
........
my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
Now that Sidhu's sentence has been handed down, Thomas feels it is ok to open up about what he calls "the most amazing experience" of his life.
"My shirt was wet with his tears," he says.
Although he is not religious, Thomas says he has always been spiritual. The violence of the crash and the randomness of its devastation have in some ways been a relief, answering questions he says he has long pondered about tragedies in the world.
"There's no way God was responsible for this. There's no way karma was kicking me in the ass for being a bad guy," he says.
"Probably the deepest feeling I've had, since all of this started, is a feeling of resignation. I mean, what can you do? There's nothing you can do about this: it just punches you in the face. I can scream and yell all I want but it's not bringing him back."
But when it comes to the subject of forgiveness, Thomas needs to pause.
"There's not a goddamn thing I can do about this, so what else am I supposed to do?" he says.
"I feel horribly for Mr Sidhu, I really do. I feel horribly for everyone involved in this. So have I forgiven him? Yeah, what other option do I have? I don't think I have another option in order to maintain my own sanity."
Moving on
The Humboldt tragedy hit close to home for many in Canada, a country where hockey is more of an identity than a pastime.
To this day, Thomas still gets letters and poems from Canadians who sympathise with his loss.
He says having so much support has been wonderful, but grieving in public is not always easy. It is almost impossible to avoid images of the crash, or to find a quiet moment amidst the frequent media requests.
"I find a lot of emptiness in my life right now. Evan's the first thing I think about when I get up in the morning. He's the last thing I think about at night when I go to bed," he says.
"It's usually the first word on my mind when I find myself driving anywhere. It's confusing - we're trying to find a way to celebrate his life, but it's hard to not get hooked up on how he died, and the last few moments of his life."
Evan began skating almost as soon as he could walk, says Thomas, who played junior hockey himself when he was in his teens, retiring from the sport in 1993.
As a child, Evan would watch his father play pickup games with friends, and practised his shooting in the basement.
By the time he was a young teen, Thomas says he knew his son had the talent to make it to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, a semi-professional hockey league.
He was never the best athlete in their hometown of Saskatoon, Thomas says fondly, but he was one of the best.
"It was pretty clear to us that Evan had an opportunity to excel in athletics, and in school too. He was just the kind of kid whom things came naturally to," he says.
Before Evan graduated high school, he won the school's science award for achieving top marks.
He wanted to go to university, and had talked about becoming an astronaut or an orthopaedic surgeon. Thomas used to catch his son watching the popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy with his mother.
Thomas didn't see the appeal of the TV show, which is heavy on romance and melodramatics,
"I used to bug him: 'Why the hell are you watching that?'" he recalls.
"Dad, I'm just watching it for the surgery,'" Evan explained.
'He's a broken man'
One thing that has kept Thomas and his wife going is their campaign for reforms in the trucking industry. The owner of the trucking company that employed Sidhu is facing several charges related to non-compliance with safety regulations.
Along with other parents of victims, the couple has drafted a petition calling on the federal government to better regulate commercial trucking. Petition E-2005 has garnered almost 5,000 signatures and they hope to introduce it to parliament.
Thomas says ultimately, he blames the trucking company and relaxed government regulations for his son's death, more than he blames Sidhu himself.
"Have I forgiven him? Yeah, I would say I have. He's a broken man, he did not intend this outcome, he was taken advantage of by the system that put him there."
After their meeting, Thomas left his mobile phone number with one of Sidhu's family members, should he ever need someone to talk to.
"I wouldn't give you my cellphone number if I didn't want you to use it," he told him.
my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
I mean... I guess something had to be done, but at the end of the day... this was an accident.
Canada has a rich history of treating way more malicious people much better. This guy should have been more attentive and should have been adhering to policy as set by law; however, it was an accident.
And to boot... he took full responsibility.
We are heavy handed in the wrong places in my opinion.
I mean... I guess something had to be done, but at the end of the day... this was an accident.
Canada has a rich history of treating way more malicious people much better. This guy should have been more attentive and should have been adhering to policy as set by law; however, it was an accident.
And to boot... he took full responsibility.
We are heavy handed in the wrong places in my opinion.
Most analyst says he will be out in 3-5. If this was just a case of blowing through a stop, then maybe a lighter sentence would be warranted. But when you commit 70 log books violations in the 2 weeks leading up to the accident, add in the fact that he was supposed to park on the day of the accident, he still got off light. There has not been a greater traffic accident caused by one driver.
Most analyst says he will be out in 3-5. If this was just a case of blowing through a stop, then maybe a lighter sentence would be warranted. But when you commit 70 log books violations in the 2 weeks leading up to the accident, add in the fact that he was supposed to park on the day of the accident, he still got off light. There has not been a greater traffic accident caused by one driver.
We had a local driver kill one of our children and drive away. He tried to hide the evidence. After an exhausting investigation, he got just over a year. He could have received the max (2 years), but the judge felt sorry for him and gave him a lighter sentence because he got beat up in jail. No shit.
He’s suing the jail for lack of supervision resulting in him get shitkicked. He’s going to make a profit from this experience of his.
Most analyst says he will be out in 3-5. If this was just a case of blowing through a stop, then maybe a lighter sentence would be warranted. But when you commit 70 log books violations in the 2 weeks leading up to the accident, add in the fact that he was supposed to park on the day of the accident, he still got off light. There has not been a greater traffic accident caused by one driver.
We had a local driver kill one of our children and drive away. He tried to hide the evidence. After an exhausting investigation, he got just over a year. He could have received the max (2 years), but the judge felt sorry for him and gave him a lighter sentence because he got beat up in jail. No shit.
He’s suing the jail for lack of supervision resulting in him get shitkicked. He’s going to make a profit from this experience of his.
It's bad enough to hit someone but just plain awful to drive away. Hopefully, his lawsuit is an epic fail. We had a hit and run, the pedestrian survived, the guy got 6 months...here's the kicker, if he did not drive away, he would not have been charged with anything...him hitting the pedestrian would have lead to no charges, the police said. Sometimes it's better to stand up and face the music.
In the case of the Humboldt crash, the judge had a tough job...there has never been a traffic accident like this that had precedent she could really go by.
Most analyst says he will be out in 3-5. If this was just a case of blowing through a stop, then maybe a lighter sentence would be warranted. But when you commit 70 log books violations in the 2 weeks leading up to the accident, add in the fact that he was supposed to park on the day of the accident, he still got off light. There has not been a greater traffic accident caused by one driver.
We had a local driver kill one of our children and drive away. He tried to hide the evidence. After an exhausting investigation, he got just over a year. He could have received the max (2 years), but the judge felt sorry for him and gave him a lighter sentence because he got beat up in jail. No shit.
He’s suing the jail for lack of supervision resulting in him get shitkicked. He’s going to make a profit from this experience of his.
You lost a child Thirty?!
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
Most analyst says he will be out in 3-5. If this was just a case of blowing through a stop, then maybe a lighter sentence would be warranted. But when you commit 70 log books violations in the 2 weeks leading up to the accident, add in the fact that he was supposed to park on the day of the accident, he still got off light. There has not been a greater traffic accident caused by one driver.
We had a local driver kill one of our children and drive away. He tried to hide the evidence. After an exhausting investigation, he got just over a year. He could have received the max (2 years), but the judge felt sorry for him and gave him a lighter sentence because he got beat up in jail. No shit.
He’s suing the jail for lack of supervision resulting in him get shitkicked. He’s going to make a profit from this experience of his.
Comments
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47631569
When Jaskirat Singh Sidhu ran a stop sign and crashed into a bus carrying a Canadian hockey team, he caused an accident that took 16 lives and left 13 more people seriously injured. A year later, the father of one of his victims reflects on the meaning of forgiveness.
Scott Thomas has told this story countless times.
How he was riding in the car with Cal Hobbs, another hockey dad, on the way to the Humboldt Broncos' game against the Nipawin Hawks on 6 April 2018.
How Hobbs's son Declan, the goalie for the Hawks, called his father just hours before the puck was set to drop.
How Declan, on speakerphone, said, "Don't bother coming: the game's cancelled. There's been a bad bus accident," before breaking down in tears.
How they drove to the crash site in silence, save for the blare of the ambulance sirens and the whir of helicopters overhead.
"I just got this impending feeling of doom," Thomas told the BBC, in an interview almost a year after the accident.
Thomas's son Evan was killed, along with 15 others, when a semi-trailer driven by Jaskirat Singh Sidhu crashed into the bus carrying the Broncos team and staff.
Thirteen others were injured, some permanently.
On Friday, Sidhu was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to 29 charges of dangerous driving, causing death and bodily harm.
He was not speeding, intoxicated or on his cellphone when he ran through a flashing stop sign at the intersection, colliding with the front half of the bus. He had been on the job one month.
The 29-year-old man grew up on a farm in India and moved to Canada in 2013, where he became a permanent resident, according to the CBC.
He could face deportation.
"I take full responsibility for what has happened," he told the victims' families when he pleaded guilty in January.
"It happened because of my lack of experience, and I am so, so, so, so sorry
During his sentencing hearing, family members described a range of feelings towards the man responsible for so many deaths.
"I despise you for taking my baby away from me," Andrea Joseph told the court through anguished sobs. "You don't deserve my forgiveness. You shouldn't have been driving."
Others offered forgiveness, including the wife of the team's coach, who also perished.
"I want to tell you I forgive you," Christina Haugan said. "I have been forgiven for things when I didn't deserve it, so I will do the same."
Despite these conflicting feelings, Thomas says the extended victims of the crash have formed their own kind of "family", and they talk nearly every day on WhatsApp or online.
Until now, Thomas - who met Sidhu privately in January - has preferred to keep his own feelings to himself. He is concerned that if he reveals too much about what happened in their intense, brief encounter, it could persuade the judge one way or another and alienate members of the "family".
........
Now that Sidhu's sentence has been handed down, Thomas feels it is ok to open up about what he calls "the most amazing experience" of his life.
"My shirt was wet with his tears," he says.
Although he is not religious, Thomas says he has always been spiritual. The violence of the crash and the randomness of its devastation have in some ways been a relief, answering questions he says he has long pondered about tragedies in the world.
"There's no way God was responsible for this. There's no way karma was kicking me in the ass for being a bad guy," he says.
"Probably the deepest feeling I've had, since all of this started, is a feeling of resignation. I mean, what can you do? There's nothing you can do about this: it just punches you in the face. I can scream and yell all I want but it's not bringing him back."
But when it comes to the subject of forgiveness, Thomas needs to pause.
"There's not a goddamn thing I can do about this, so what else am I supposed to do?" he says.
"I feel horribly for Mr Sidhu, I really do. I feel horribly for everyone involved in this. So have I forgiven him? Yeah, what other option do I have? I don't think I have another option in order to maintain my own sanity."
Moving on
The Humboldt tragedy hit close to home for many in Canada, a country where hockey is more of an identity than a pastime.
To this day, Thomas still gets letters and poems from Canadians who sympathise with his loss.
He says having so much support has been wonderful, but grieving in public is not always easy. It is almost impossible to avoid images of the crash, or to find a quiet moment amidst the frequent media requests.
"I find a lot of emptiness in my life right now. Evan's the first thing I think about when I get up in the morning. He's the last thing I think about at night when I go to bed," he says.
"It's usually the first word on my mind when I find myself driving anywhere. It's confusing - we're trying to find a way to celebrate his life, but it's hard to not get hooked up on how he died, and the last few moments of his life."
Evan began skating almost as soon as he could walk, says Thomas, who played junior hockey himself when he was in his teens, retiring from the sport in 1993.
As a child, Evan would watch his father play pickup games with friends, and practised his shooting in the basement.
By the time he was a young teen, Thomas says he knew his son had the talent to make it to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, a semi-professional hockey league.
He was never the best athlete in their hometown of Saskatoon, Thomas says fondly, but he was one of the best.
"It was pretty clear to us that Evan had an opportunity to excel in athletics, and in school too. He was just the kind of kid whom things came naturally to," he says.
Before Evan graduated high school, he won the school's science award for achieving top marks.
He wanted to go to university, and had talked about becoming an astronaut or an orthopaedic surgeon. Thomas used to catch his son watching the popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy with his mother.
Thomas didn't see the appeal of the TV show, which is heavy on romance and melodramatics,
"I used to bug him: 'Why the hell are you watching that?'" he recalls.
"Dad, I'm just watching it for the surgery,'" Evan explained.
'He's a broken man'
One thing that has kept Thomas and his wife going is their campaign for reforms in the trucking industry. The owner of the trucking company that employed Sidhu is facing several charges related to non-compliance with safety regulations.
Along with other parents of victims, the couple has drafted a petition calling on the federal government to better regulate commercial trucking. Petition E-2005 has garnered almost 5,000 signatures and they hope to introduce it to parliament.
Thomas says ultimately, he blames the trucking company and relaxed government regulations for his son's death, more than he blames Sidhu himself.
"Have I forgiven him? Yeah, I would say I have. He's a broken man, he did not intend this outcome, he was taken advantage of by the system that put him there."
After their meeting, Thomas left his mobile phone number with one of Sidhu's family members, should he ever need someone to talk to.
"I wouldn't give you my cellphone number if I didn't want you to use it," he told him.
I mean... I guess something had to be done, but at the end of the day... this was an accident.
Canada has a rich history of treating way more malicious people much better. This guy should have been more attentive and should have been adhering to policy as set by law; however, it was an accident.
And to boot... he took full responsibility.
We are heavy handed in the wrong places in my opinion.
He’s suing the jail for lack of supervision resulting in him get shitkicked. He’s going to make a profit from this experience of his.
In the case of the Humboldt crash, the judge had a tough job...there has never been a traffic accident like this that had precedent she could really go by.
No- sorry. That was worded very poorly.
Our community is what I meant to say.