A 26-year-old Punjab-origin man has been deported from Canada, where he was convicted in a 2019 crash which killed two women in the Alberta province of the country.
Bipinjot Gill, who arrived in Canada in 2016 on a student visa, left the country on January 15 after a federal court judge rejected his attempts to have a deportation order stayed earlier this month, a media report said.
Gill was driving twice the speed limit when he ran his Hyundai through a red light and T-boned a Toyota Corolla on May 18, 2019.
The crash killed Uzma Afzal, 31, and her mother, Bilquees Begum, 65, who were in their vehicle, while severely injuring another passenger, the Calgary Herald newspaper reported earlier this month.
Gill was issued a deportation order on September 6, 2022, after being found “inadmissible to Canada for serious criminality.” He was convicted of the double fatality case in April 2023 and was sentenced to a term of house arrest, 300 hours of community service and a year of probation in November.
On January 12, Judge Shirzad Ahmed dismissed Gill’s claims that he would face harm if returned to India by not being able to access treatment for his mental health issues, the report said.
“The applicant committed and was convicted of a serious crime. Lives were lost. The families of the victims will never see family members again,” Ahmed stated in his ruling.
{{/usCountry}}“The applicant committed and was convicted of a serious crime. Lives were lost. The families of the victims will never see family members again,” Ahmed stated in his ruling.
{{/usCountry}}“And while (Gill) has struggled with substance abuse and mental health issues, he has been found criminally responsible for his conduct by a competent court of law,” the newspaper cited the ruling.
The judge noted that Gill was also convicted of dangerous driving and fleeing from an officer following another incident on August 14, 2019.
Last year in February, a physician concluded that Gill was ineligible to use a defence that he’s not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.
According to his immigration lawyer, Gill ran out of time in his bid to stay the deportation order and acted without legal counsel for too long. “He had the right case, but timing was the problem. He missed a lot of opportunities,” said the lawyer, Dalwinder Hayer.
Gill had earned a two-year diploma from Bow Valley College in Calgary. His parents and brother are in Canada on temporary visas, while his uncle and grandparents are Canadian citizens, according to the report.