'Immigration consequences' unlikely for man linked to deadly 401 crash
Even for a repeat convicted criminal with a cameo role in one of 2024's most egregious horrors
Author of the article:Brad Hunter
Published Dec 18, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
Like an indulgent parent, an Oshawa judge warned Manpreet Gill that he could face “immigration consequences.”
Well, we all know the word “consequences” has been redacted from the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.
Even for a repeat convicted criminal with a cameo role in one of 2024’s most egregious horrors.
Nonetheless, Ontario Court Justice Russell Wood gamely soldiered on.
He told Gill: “I understand that … there’s the potential for immigration consequences.”
Then the jurist signed off on a joint sentencing submission delivering Gill a five-and-a-half month jail term (HAR!HAR!) – more than time served – and two years’ probation.
According to CBC News, Gill, 38, pleaded guilty last month in an Oshawa court to three counts, including the lesser charge of theft under $5,000. Gill initially faced 13 charges.
His status in this country is murky and he was on probation when the incident occurred, the second time in the past two years he breached.
Blame opioid addiction, he told the court in Punjabi.
Of course, one may wonder why the CBSA wasn’t waiting outside the courthouse to escort Mr. Gill to an awaiting plane and whisk him back to India.
Last week, my Toronto Sun colleague Bryan Passifiume reported that almost 30,000 people ordered for deportation are in the wind. CBSA has simply lost track of them, so there’s that.
But let’s rewind.
Gill was acting as a lookout during an LCBO heist in Clarington on April 29 that led to the wrong-way death crash on Hwy. 401 that claimed the lives of four people, including a baby.
Cops say his buddy Gagandeep Singh, 21, pulled a knife on an off-duty cop during the robbery that saw the master criminals flee with $1,602.80 in booze. The duo then split in a U-Haul van.
A dramatic high-speed chase saw Singh — who was driving — eventually drive the wrong way down the nation’s busiest highway. It culminated in a multi-vehicle crash that killed three-month-old Aditya Vivaan and two of his grandparents visiting from India. The baby’s parents were also injured.
Singh also died in the crash. Gill had nothing to do with the road tragedy, court heard.
As for Singh, the killer driver, he too was out on bail after being accused of a slew of violent robberies in Burlington, Oakville and Milton in January.
He was arrested and charged again at the end of February for robbery and possession of a stolen vehicle. One of his conditions was not to get behind the wheel.
Singh’s immigration status was also foggy but still, we gave him chance after chance and that naive generosity cost three innocent people their lives.
He too was an illegal immigrant but as the now-sainted former finance minister Chrystia Freeland scolded reporters, bringing up that pertinent fact was, in fact, “not very Canadian.”
Years ago, when I moved to New York, I was terrified of getting pissed in Peoria on a Saturday night because I could get booted from the country if things went south.
Not so much for the small army making their way through the jails and courthouses of Canada. There are no “consequences.”
But don’t bring that up. It wouldn’t be “very Canadian.”
The crash remains under investigation by the province’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
Like an indulgent parent, an Oshawa judge warned Manpreet Gill that he could face "immigration consequences."
torontosun.com