True Canadian justice is not about retribution

They were young, healthy and fit; the pride of a small Saskatchewan town of about 6,000 people. The Humboldt Broncos hockey team was on a bus carrying them to a playoff game. They never made it.

On a rural stretch of highway, on an April day six years ago, that bus and a semi-trailer truck crashed. Of the 29 people on the bus carrying the team, 16 died and 13 suffered serious injuries. The crash was, in a word, horrific.

Next month, the driver of the semi-trailer, who testified he was distracted and didn't notice the oversized stop sign at that highway intersection, will face a deportation hearing. This is not only a test of Canadian law, but also a litmus test for Canadians.

Is Canada's criminal justice system based on punishment or rehabilitation? If the answer is the latter, that driver should be permitted to stay in this country.

Jaskirat Singh Sidhu made a horrible and deadly mistake. One dreadful error. He was not drunk, stoned or otherwise impaired. He did not try to evade the sentence of eight years in prison when he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving. He was granted parole last year.

But he faces a further punishment — not for what he did, but for who he is.

Sidhu is not a Canadian citizen. As a permanent resident, but not yet a citizen, he faces deportation to his native India. Under less appalling circumstances, he is the kind of immigrant Canada needs — a young man ready to work hard and make a home for himself in Canada. There is a distinct likelihood he will never get the chance.

A judge dismissed an application to permit him to stay. The Canada Border Services Agency has recommended he be deported.

There are likely many Canadians who would suggest he deserves such an additional sentence, that he deserves to be barred from this country. Look at how he has robbed so many families of their children. I can hear the outrage still; and hear the understandable need for some form of retribution, if not revenge. Nothing will bring those young men back.

Nothing will ease the pain of those families.

But the reality is that if every person facing criminal prosecution in Canada were to act as Sidhu has, our prisons would not be crowded with people who cared so little about others; people who were too drunk or stoned or psychotic to realize what they were doing when they committed a criminal offence. Sidhu accepted his sentence and showed more than a modicum of remorse. None of his actions should cause anyone to fear for their lives or safety should this man remain in Canada.

He had no prior criminal record before the accident. To anyone who believes the justice system favours rehabilitation over punishment, Sidhu would be featured on posters as an example of acceptance of guilt.

This is not just one person's opinion, but also the accepted view of this country as written in law. We need to remember Canada abolished the death penalty not because we are soft on crime, but because an enlightened country does not kill in retaliation. Our country should not be founded on vengeance and retaliation.

A simple search about sentencing an offender states: “The process of sentencing involves consideration of the following principles with each decision: the objectives of denunciation, deterrence, separation of offenders from society, rehabilitation of offenders, and acknowledgment of and reparation for the harm they have done.”

The Government of Canada website says: “Canada's criminal justice system plays a critical role in ensuring that Canada is a just and law-abiding society with an accessible, efficient and fair system of justice. It is also a complex system involving many players, each with varied responsibilities and roles, which must come together and work in tandem with each other.”

Those Canadians who believe in the scriptural “eye for an eye” as some form of righteous justice need to read further than Exodus or Leviticus.

There's a simple reason for not seeking retribution: It makes us little better than the miscreant. It hardens and makes coarse our civil society.

Worse, it hardens our lives, along with our heads and hearts.