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The families of five people who died in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash plan to appeal a judge’s decision to dismiss their lawsuit against the Saskatchewan government, the company that made the bus and the semi driver who caused the crash, their lawyer says.
A Regina Court of King’s Bench judge dismissed the lawsuit last week. The families initially filed their statement of claim in July 2018, just months after a semi-trailer went through a stop sign and collided with the junior hockey team’s bus, killing 16 people and injuring 13.
The families will appeal the decision, their lawyer Kevin Mellor said in an interview.
“The public generally does not know all of the facts behind the Humboldt Broncos deaths and a court case in the public domain is the only way all of the people that caused this death are held accountable,” Mellor said.
“If that gets cut off at the knees before the public understands what really happened, then we have lost our way.”
The families of five victims — Jaxon Joseph, 20, of St. Albert, Alta.; Logan Hunter, 18, of St. Albert; Jacob Leicht, 19, of Humboldt, Sask.; Adam Herold, 16, of Montmartre, Sask.; and assistant coach Mark Cross, 27, of Strasbourg, Sask. — alleged the province knew the rural intersection where the crash happened had visibility problems but did nothing to fix it.
The families had amended their statement of claim in August 2023 to argue that provisions in the provincial Automobile Accident Insurance Act, The Fatal Accidents Act, and The Workers’ Compensation Act unconstitutionally prevent them from suing for claims for negligence.
“With the no-fault [insurance] scheme disallowing the families of the deceased children to bring any kind of a civil claim for wrongful death, they’re denied any meaningful legal process, which is a denial to life, liberty and security of the person,” Mellor’s co-counsel Sharon Fox said.
She added that the families went to court because “they wanted acknowledgement that their children’s lives mattered enough for the justice system to look fully and transparently at what went wrong and why.”
The government had asked to be struck from the suit because Saskatchewan has no-fault insurance, which means a person receives comprehensive benefits no matter who’s responsible for a collision, but the right to sue for pain and suffering is limited.
In his Dec. 16 written decision, Justice Graeme Mitchell said the plaintiffs failed to prove how the provisions violate their rights under sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The lawsuit also named the bus manufacturer Motor Coach Industries Limited, semi driver Jaskirat Singh Sidhu and his Calgary-based employer ADT. Sidhu was sentenced to eight years in prison for dangerous driving offences and was ordered to be deported to India.
Mellor said the government is relying on “statutory immunity to avoid scrutiny” of how its actions — or lack of action — contributed to the crash.
“This case was never just about compensation,” Mellor said. “If this decision stands, it sends a message that preventable deaths caused by regulatory failure may never be examined in open court.”
Mitchell’s decision did not allow the plaintiffs to amend their statement of claim arguments and awarded costs to the defendants.
