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Maple Leaf Motoring: Trucker fights deportation ‘for working hard’

Nate Tabak
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Jobandeep Sandhu speaks at a rally fighting his deportation from Canada for working too many hours as a trucker. Photo: Migrant Workers Alliance for Change

Maple Leaf Motoring is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of Canadian trucking. This week – a trucker fights his deportation, a pay-as-you-go ELD is released, and workplace safety declines in Ontario.

A mechanical engineering student who supported himself by driving a truck faces deportation from Canada to India for working more hours than his study permit allowed.

Jobandeep Sandhu was pulled over during a routine traffic stop on Highway 401 between Montreal and Toronto in 2017. But upon examining his log book, a police officer discovered that he had worked more than 20 hours – above the weekly limit under his permit to study in Canada.

“Now I am being deported for working hard,” Sandhu wrote on an online petition, asking Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to rescind the deportation order.


The petition had collected more than 50,000 signatures as of May 24.

“I had a choice either to stop studying or work harder to support my education and my dreams. I chose the latter,” he added.

Sandhu is required to leave Canada by June 15.

The Ontario Trucking Association has called on Canada to bring in more foreign truckers to address a driver shortage.


Injuries rise at Ontario’s transport and warehouse workplaces

Transportation and warehousing workplaces in Ontario got less safe, according to a new ranking from the province’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.

The 2019 Health and Safety Index for the transportation and warehousing industry, which includes trucking, dropped by 1.6 percent largely because of a sharp increase in injuries. Workplace safety across all workplaces overall rose by 1.9 percent.

TruckNews noted that serious injuries nearly doubled in 2018.

First pay-as-you-go ELD unveiled

FleetComplete’s BigRoad launched a pay-as-you-go service for its DashLink ELD, the first of its kind electronic logging device (ELD).

“We have clients whose business is seasonal or that requires ELD compliance on occasion, but who have to subscribe to full service, which they don’t use all the time. With Pay-As-You-Drive, these drivers will have an easier path to compliance without the financial strain,” said Tony Lourakis, CEO of Fleet Complete and BigRoad.

The Canadian firm is also providing free hardware to new customers. It also comes without contracts or cancellation fees.

Click for more FreightWaves articles by Nate Tabak.


40 Comments

  1. Bert

    There is no driver shortage, its a pay shortage. If these large companies would take half the money spent on recruiting and advertising and pay there drivers they wouldn’t cry shortage

    2. Kris

      yup agree. i work full time as DZ driver my gf works part time as she studies. We can’t even afford an apartment in gta. 1600 for crappy 2 bedroom plus hydro ? they’ve got to be kidding me.

  3. Concerned

    Working and studying is like having two jobs which mean he is probably not getting enough sleep to safely perform his duties as a trucker. With the lack of sleep he is putting everyone at risk. Deportation may be a little extreme if this is his first time so I have to wonder if there is more to this story.

  4. Canadian

    You are supposed to be studying in our country and with your visa you had rule and you did not follow them so have a nice trip home.If you had followed the rule given to you after your visa finished you could have work has hard as you wanted but when the government give you a break with a visa to STUDY you say thanks and follow the rule.Sorry but no sympathy for people who come on our country and break the law now what will happen later sex trade ,drug trafficking……

  5. Phil

    Exactly! How is it that the crime, whatever it may be, is overlooked in an attempt to solicit sympathy? He applied to come to Canada under a particular set of rules and guidelines. Part of that included a guarantee of having funds enough to study and live here. He broke those conditions and the law. If he is willing to do that now for his benefit, what will he be willing to do later, smuggle drugs in a truck? Is this the kind of person we want in Canada? Have a safe trip home to the Punjab.

  6. Marc Te

    Now I am being deported for working hard,” ??
    No !, you are in Canada under Student Visa, not Working hard Visa.

    1. Steve Webster

      You are right I know of someone who said was going to work as mechanic but bought a Truck to work as a Owner-op leaving his employer with over $5000 in costs and fees plus when he got caught he spent a year in jail. You are to do what the permit says 5195239586

    1. Canadian

      Yes he broke the law he had a visa to study not to work ,je receive money from the Canadian government to study which I pay with my tax so yes no sympathy he has to go back to his country.If not it make us look like a bunch of pushover that anyone can come to Canada and break the law and rule.If you break the law you while be charge right..so yes he has to go back to his country and reap’ied In a few year and this time he will think twice before breaking the law…

      3. Sandra

        YOU HAVE A FILTHY MOUTH, YOU SHOULD BE KICKED OFF. I GUESS YOU DIDN’T HAVE A FATHER TO TEACH YOU HOW TO TALK TO A W. HE BROKE THE IMMIGRATION LAW. PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

      4. Jdlatino

        Your tax? Lol colleges are ripping off international students… While a Canadian would pay maybe 15k for 2 years.. an international student would have to pay more than 30k.. so stfu please

      5. Steve Webster

        I can not drive a hundred hours per week hours spent studying or a second job come off the total hours that you can work. The idea of the work permit is to be a job related to the field of study.. I know of many people who come from certain countries seem to think that they can break the rules.

Comments are closed.

Nate Tabak

Nate Tabak is a Toronto-based journalist and producer who covers cybersecurity and cross-border trucking and logistics for FreightWaves. He spent seven years reporting stories in the Balkans and Eastern Europe as a reporter, producer and editor based in Kosovo. He previously worked at newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the San Jose Mercury News. He graduated from UC Berkeley, where he studied the history of American policing. Contact Nate at [email protected].