KPU community loses recent graduate to ‘tragic accident’
Jasskirat Singh, 20, graduated in June and hoped to eventually open his own business
Kwantlen Polytechnic University graduate Jasskirat Singh recently passed away in what is described as a “tragic accident” on July 29 at 20 years of age, a month after receiving his degree at the June Convocation. Jasskirat was working hard to earn money to send to his family in India.
His close friend, Karanveer Singh, created a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover the funeral costs, the flights to bring Jasskirat’s family to Canada for the funeral, to transport Jasskirat’s body back to India, and to support Jasskirat’s family since he was the only earning member of his family working to pay off their debts.
According to the GoFunMe page, Jasskirat’s family hadn’t seen him in the last four years while he was living in Canada.
Karanveer describes Jasskirat as a fun and hardworking person who always tried to make the people around him smile. He says Jasskirat was saving money to bring his brother to Canada, and Jasskirat’s goals were to help the people around him and make sure they were happy.
Shubham Singh, Jasskirat’s former manager at Tim Hortons, says Jasskirat was one of the best hires who always made sure to work hard.
“He was always talking about [his] family, how he can succeed in Canada, and [was] one of the guys who really wanted to build a life for himself and for his family,” Shubham says.
Shubham shared the story of a time where a big snowfall caused the Tim Hortons they worked at to be short staffed and the transit systems unreliable. Jasskirat was able to have a friend drop him off at work so he could help out.
Jasskirat was interested in running his own business one day, so he often asked Shubham questions on running a business, since Shubham is opening his own restaurant. Jasskirat also offered to help Shubham in his new restaurant.
“He was the kind of guy who wanted to learn more all the time, very ambitious,” Shubham says.
“When he’s at work, he’s working, he’s having fun, he’s making people smile, joking around [and] just trying to keep things light and easy.”
The goal for the GoFundMe is $50,000. After funeral expenses, Karanveer says a portion of the money will pay for Jasskirat’s father’s hospital bills, as Jasskirat was working to pay for it. Karanveer also says the rest of the money will help the family take care of themselves until Jasskirat’s younger brother is old enough to work and support his family.
“We’re trying to eliminate that financial void as much as we can from our side. Even $10, $5, or $30 matters a lot,” Karanveer says.
Shubham says, if the roles were reversed, he knows Jasskirat would have done everything he could to help out.
“He was one of those guys who would go out of his way to help other people out. It doesn’t matter who they are. He always had concerns about other people,” Shubham says.
Jasskirat also ran for the business student representative in the 2021 Kwantlen Student Association annual general election.
