He was convicted of killing an innocent woman in a savage street race—but when the judge read the verdict, the man wasn’t even in the country.
Japkirat Singh sat thousands of miles away in India, claiming his father was ill and his work permit had expired. Yet the question that screams louder than any engine: why was he allowed to leave Canada at all?
On December 18, 2021, just after midnight, Singh and his coworker Nazir Abdulqayoum finished their shift at a Pizza Nova call centre. Then they turned Lawrence Avenue East into a deadly racetrack.
Abdulqayoum’s white Toyota slammed into Lynda MacIver’s blue Nissan as she made a left turn onto Pharmacy Avenue. She never had a chance. He was doing over 120 km/h in a 50 zone—and never touched his brakes.
MacIver, 57, died in hospital from blunt-force trauma to her chest and abdomen. Her passenger, Nishan Arampu, needed nine surgeries and spent seven months in a hospital bed.
Two years later, Abdulqayoum pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death. Singh chose trial, insisting he wasn’t racing—just a coincidence that he was on the same stretch of road at the same time.
He admitted his Ford Fusion hit 109 km/h, but claimed he was on the phone with his mother in India and didn’t notice the speed. He said he didn’t even realize his coworkers were in the crash until he went to check on the victims.
The judge wasn’t buying it. “I do not rely on his evidence unless it is otherwise corroborated,” wrote Justice Sean Nishikawa, shredding Singh’s credibility.
Nishikawa found Singh was driving dangerously by racing at twice the speed limit on a well-travelled stretch. “A reasonably prudent person would have foreseen the risk,” the ruling declared.
Singh had only held a G2 license for six months before the crash. His participation in the race, the judge wrote, “created a grave risk of death or injury to other users of the road.”
His driving was “a significant contributing cause of Ms. MacIver’s death and the serious bodily harm suffered by Mr. Arampu.”
But will Singh ever come back to face Canadian justice? On April 21, after he appeared virtually from India instead of in person, the judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
The matter returns to court in June. One woman is dead. One man is shattered. And the man convicted of helping to kill her remains beyond reach.
