Race-Based Sentencing in British Columbia
October 22, 2006 · By Aaron Unruh
The community of Maple Ridge is currently re-living a particularly gruesome crime of a year-and-a-half ago:
Chett and Flo Crellin’s 24-year-old grandson - an energetic, thoughtful and conscientious young man - was dragged to his death by a drunk punk stealing gas in Maple Ridge on March 8, 2005.
By the time the driver stopped, Grant de Patie’s body was bounced, ground and scraped over seven kilometres of pavement, his body almost unrecognizable, his clothing shorn to shreds.
And, for what?
To steal $12.30 worth of gas.
The crime produced Grant’s Law, which requires gas stations in British Columbia to use pre-pay services after a certain hour. It also produced a nine-year sentence for the murderer, Darnell Pratt.
Unfortunately, Mr. Pratt will be appealing the sentence, arguing that it is too severe. The basis for the appeal? That the lower court judge did not take into account the fact that Pratt is an aboriginal when determining the sentence. The crown is arguing that Pratt’s aboriginal race was taken into account in the lower court.
By which we should infer that race should partially determine the length of sentences for murder convictions, and that aboriginal race should result in more lenient sentences.
There is such a thing as judicial discretion in sentencing, which is desirable or even essential, and such a thing as race-based sentencing and an effective legal apartheid. This is closer to the latter.
If the justice system doesn’t guarantee equality for all, then a piecemeal approach will create acrimony and discontent. This is what you get when you want to be, as Paul Martin used to say, ‘a nation of minorities’. It would appear that we’re heading toward becoming a disjointed landmass of distinct nations with conflicting interests.