Many service jobs pay too little and demand too much. Long hours on your feet, gruelling work, and verbal and even physical abuse from customers. And often times for a minimum wage job where there’s inadequate training and safety is an afterthought. One extreme example is that of Grant De Patie.
On March 8th of 2005, 24-year-old Grant De Patie was working a late shift at an Esso gas station in Maple Ridge, BC. During his shift, two intoxicated youths- Darnell Pratt and “Mr. L”- came to the station in a stolen white Chrysler Lebaron. The car was in need of gas, so Darnell, who was driving, pulled into the Esso where Grant was working.
The two youths in the stolen car pried the gas cap off and began fueling the vehicle. The two were exhibiting odd and suspicious behavior, so Grant approached them, expecting they were going to pull a “gas and go”. Upon approaching the vehicle, Grant noticed that the vehicle’s ignition had been punched out with a screwdriver (a popular method used to steal and start the car). Probably realizing the car might be stolen, Grant wrote down the license plate number and walked away.
What happened next was described by the sentencing judge in Darnell’s trial:
“Twelve dollars worth of gas had been pumped into the car at this point. Mr. Pratt returned to the driver’s seat and suddenly and unexpectedly accelerated away from the gas pump while Mr. L. remained standing outside the car. Most unfortunately, Mr. DePatie was somewhere nearby and in the path of the LeBaron as it accelerated towards the street. The front right side of the LeBaron struck Mr. DePatie and knocked him to the ground. The car ran over him and Mr. DePatie was caught in the undercarriage of the car. Mr. Pratt was aware that he had struck someone, but he continued to accelerate away, dragging Mr. DePatie with him.”
Darnell drove the vehicle with Grant’s body underneath for 7.5 kilometres. Eventually, his naked, abraded body came loose and fell onto the road, where it was discovered shortly thereafter. This horrific act of violence, all over $12.30 of stolen gas. The sentencing judge made it clear that Grant did not die from getting hit by the car, but rather from the injuries he sustained “as he was dragged alive under the vehicle”.
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| The Maple Ridge gas station where Grant was killed |
Darnell was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Despite being 16 at the time of the crime, he was tried as an adult. His defense lawyer tried to argue that Darnell was possibly affected by fetal alcohol syndrome. He also brought up that Darnell grew up in a poor family with no father and a mother addicted to crystal meth, and that, after dropping out of school in grade 9, Darnell was struggling with alcoholism.
In the end, it wasn’t those factors that reduced the charge from second-degree murder but, instead, Darnell’s claim that he didn’t know Grant had gotten stuck under the car. The judge noted that there was “insufficient evidence” to prove that Darnell knew he was dragging an adult man underneath his vehicle, and that this lack of awareness could reasonably be attributed to Darnell’s “drunkenness, inexperience, unfamiliarity with the vehicle and/or fear of apprehension.” In the end, Darnell was charged with manslaughter. He received a sentence of 12 years but was released just 7 years later in 2012.
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| Darnell Pratt |
Investigation Into the Death of Grant De Patie
Following Grant’s horrific death, an investigation was conducted by WorkSafe BC.
The report stated that Grant did not follow Esso’s safety regulations, which would’ve required him to stay inside during an overnight shift. The station’s policy was that, after 11PM, customers were to pay for their gas, before fuelling, at the service window or pay at the pump using their credit card. However, WorkSafe says the policy wasn’t properly enforced.
Disappointing, but not surprising, the gas station owner, Barj Dhahan, blamed Grant for the events that led to his death, saying; “This employee chose to do something that he shouldn’t have been done”. He went on to add that Grant knew the rules and had signed a document to the same effect.
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| Gas station owner, Barj Dhahan today. Photo via UBC. |
Legislation
The Canadian public was understandably horrified and upset by what had happened to Grant. He had been alone, and there was no protection from violent customers. What could be done to protect workers in similar positions to prevent just a horrible tragedy from ever occurring like this again?
The following year, in 2006, Grant’s Law was introduced by Minister of Labour, Olga Ilich, to the British Columbia Legislature. Its full title; “Changes to Workers Compensation Act, Occupational Health and Safety Regulation”.
It was the first law of its kind in Canada and called for increased security measures for gas station and store employees working alone at night.
Section 4.22.1 of the new act requires employers to train new and young employees in safety precautions. It also mandated that two employees be present between an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift or that a barrier between an employee and a customer be installed.
Section 4.22.2 of the same act called for drivers to pay before they use a gas pump. All urban gas stations were now required to have a pre-payment system in place to prevent gas-and-dash crimes.
Grant’s Law passed on October 4 of 2007 and came into force on February 1, 2008. It was later modified in 2012 which added a third option to 4.22.1, which was that employers also have the option to install timed-lock safes and video surveillance.
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| Former Minister of Labour, Olga Ilich |
Later Years
The death of Grant De Patie has continued to have an impact on workers’ rights and safety in British Columbia. According to the BC Federation of Labour, pressure from large corporate convenience chains such as Mac’s has led to “lessened protections” in Grant’s Law since 2012, referring to the addition of timed-locks safes and video surveillance to the list of safety options.
This amendment also inspired the BC Federation of Labour Young Workers’ Committee to stage an overnight “virtual sit-in” (since Covid-19 restrictions prohibited an in-person event) to bring awareness to weakened safety laws for convenience store and gas station staff working alone at night. The event was held in honor of Grant De Patie.
Today, a marker stands by Dewdney Trunk Road and 248th Street in Maple Ridge, where Grant was killed, to commemorate his unnecessary and tragic death. Grant’s parents, Doug and Corinne De Patie, were the ones to successfully lobby Grant’s law in BC, and also lobbied for similar legislation to be passed in other Canadian provinces.
But whatever happened to Darnell Pratt? In 2019, 14 years after Grant’s death and 7 years after Darnell was released from prison; Grant’s mother Corinne De Patie heard a rumor that Darnell had died. Curious as to what happened to her son’s killer, she called several government agencies until she was eventually directed to the BC Vital Statistics Agency. When she contacted the agency, she was told if Pratt was alive, she would receive a letter. If he was dead, she would receive a death certificate.
She received a death certificate. How Darnell died hasn’t been verified but we do know that he passed away, in prison on another charge, on February 13, 2019, in New Westminster, BC, at the age of 30.
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| Grant’s marker, near the gas station where he worked. Photo via ILWU. |
SOURCES
- Case Record of R v Pratt, 2007 BCCA 206
- Maple Ridge Attendant Died Because Safety Rules not Enforced: Report via CBC
- Mother of Maple Ridge Gas and Dash Victim Gets Closure Now That His Killer Has Died by Jonathan Szekeres for CityNews Vancouver
- Plaque will Honour Grant, and Worker Safety by Philp Melnychuk for Maple Ridge News
- Teen Pleads Guilty in Gas Station Killing via CBC British Columbia
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