Toronto: Alarmed at the United States pausing worker visas for foreign commercial truck drivers, a leading Canadian association has called upon Ottawa for action to immediately address immigration-related “problems” in the industry.
The American action was announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday. He posted on X, “The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on US roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.”
That followed a traffic accident in Florida earlier this month involving an Indian-origin truck driver who had entered the country illegally in 2018 but still managed to obtain a commercial driver’s licence the next year in California.
On August 12, Harjinder Singh, driving a truck, attempted an illegal u-turn, which resulted in the death of three persons in a minivan. Singh is facing potential deportation and three counts of vehicular manslaughter. He had earlier been processed for deportation by the first Administration of President Donald Trump but entered the asylum system after he “claimed fear of going back to India,” according to a Fox News report citing the Department of Homeland Security.
However, developments in the US are reverberating in Canada. In a statement issued on Friday, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), said, “The Visa restrictions announced by Secretary Rubio do not pertain to the Visas utilized by drivers in Canada. However, CTA believes Canada must view these events as a wakeup call to clean up the issues within our system or risk potentially facing similar restrictions in the future.”
The CTA said it that “has been adamant with governments the problems in the industry related to immigration are very evident and must be addressed.”
It called out Government “inaction” on revamping trucking immigration programmes, federally and provincially.
“It is not acceptable that those who follow the rules and operate legally be caught in the net the US is casting,” the release added.
The CTA noted, “Unfortunately, the Canadian trucking industry has seen an influx of trucking fleets and ownership groups who have little regard for safety and other ethical financial & labour business practices.”
Tragedies similar to that in Florida have occurred in Canada as well. On Friday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) issued a statement about the arrest of 25-year-old Navjeet Singh, resident of Brampton. He had been charged in connection with the death of a 35-year-old woman and her eight-year-old daughter, after he allegedly failed to stop at an intersection while driving a semi-trailer in the province of Manitoba.
A Canada-wide arrest warrant had been issued for him and he was finally taken into custody on Thursday after he arrived at Toronto airport.
Among the most horrific accidents in Canadian history was the death of 16 persons, mostly members of the junior ice hockey Humboldt Broncos team, when the coach they were riding in was struck by a truck driven by Jaskirat Singh Sidhu. That tragedy occurred in April 2018 in the province of Saskatchewan. Sidhu was in jail for three years and is currently challenging a deportation order.
A significant section of the Canadian trucking industry is controlled by Indo-Canadians. While the majority of such operations are legitimate, concerns have been raised over the activities of a section in recent years.
A number of Indian-origin truckers have been arrested in the US and in Canada for attempting to smuggle drugs in recent months. Most recently, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced on August 7 that 29-year-old Onkar Kalsi had been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine worth nearly CA$ 25 million.
As the Hindustan Times reported in February, several such trucking operations, among others, were cited by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for not being in compliance with provisions of the temporary foreign workers programme and either fined or banned from such hiring.
“The growth of unsafe and unethical trucking fleets undermining lawful and compliant cross-border operators must end. These ownership groups endanger and abuse the labour rights of the truck drivers they hire by exposing them to unsafe working conditions and other unmanageable requirements, including driving commercial vehicles they are not qualified to operate,” the CTA stressed.
