Michael Joel-Hansen
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
The families of five people killed in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash do not have legal standing to sue the Government of Saskatchewan, a judge has ruled.
In a legal decision in Court of King’s Bench in Regina, Justice Graeme Mitchell granted a request to dismiss the plaintiffs filing. Mitchell also awarded costs to the defendants.
The plaintiffs argued that provincial legislation, such as the Automobile Accident Insurance Act (AAIA), barring them from suing the province violated their rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Specifically, the plaintiffs argued their rights to life, liberty and security of person were violated as the act and ones like it “immunizes” Saskatchewan from being sued for negligence.
In striking down this argument, Mitchell wrote a law prohibiting an action in tort to recover damages does not engage the relevant sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Courts in both Ontario and Quebec have come to similar conclusions, Mitchell added.
“I am persuaded that the plaintiffs’ challenge to (section) 40.1 of the AAIA based on s.7 of the charter wholly lacks merit,” he wrote in the Dec. 16 decision.
The legal action was first brought in July 2018 by the parents of Adam Herold, one of the players killed in the collision, against the driver of the semi truck which collided with the bus Jaskirat Singh Sidhu; as well as the trucking company he was working for Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd. The action also named the manufacturer of the team’s bus. In March 2020 the province was added as a defendant.
The province argued since being named that Saskatchewan’s no-fault insurance system prohibits the government from being sued.
Joining the Herold family in the action were the parents of players Jaxon Joesph, Logan Hunter and Jacob Leicht. The parents of assistant coach Mark Cross were also named plaintiffs.
On April 6, 2018, 16 people were killed and 13 injured when the bus carrying the SJHL hockey team collided with a semi truck being driven by Sidhu after he ran a stop sign at an intersection near Tisdale. In 2019 Sidhu, pleaded guilty to 29 charges and was given an eight-year prison sentence.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs had also argued the province ignored previous warnings that the intersection where the collision occurred was dangerous.
— With files from The Canadian Press.
