Gary Corbiere, gone 20 years

By Randy Russon
August 10, 2024
Tweet

Share

It was 20 years ago that my friend Gary Corbiere passed away in a tragic boating accident. To this day, it says here that, pound for pound, the toughest player to ever wear the Ontario Hockey League uniform of the Brantford Alexanders was none other than Corbiere, a medium size left winger who played minor hockey in Sault Ste. Marie and who went to become an accomplished lawyer.

Considering that while Brantford’s initial OHL history only went from 1978 to 1984, the Alexanders alumni does include two legendary tough guys who went on to lengthy careers as National Hockey League forwards, namely Bob Probert and Shayne Corson. But to me, it was Corbiere who was even tougher than Probert and Corson. Which is saying a lot.

Standing in at 5 foot 10 and tipping the scales at 175 pounds, the hard nosed Corbiere played in 85 games for Brantford after being acquired in a trade with the Sudbury Wolves for fellow forward Dean DeFazio. As much as he made an impact as a feisty, fearless youngster who improbably made the OHL despite not being drafted, Corbiere went on to make a further name for himself beyond hockey.

Hailing from Batchewana First Nation just outside Sault Ste. Marie, Corbiere would go on to become a famed lawyer before he tragically drowned in Lake Simcoe on August 8, 2004 at age 41 while out on his boat. He had a cottage on Georgina Island and traveled frequently to the mainland to work in Toronto.

Corbiere was the lawyer who successfully argued in the Supreme Court of Canada for the right of off-reserve, First Nation peoples to have a substantial say in the decisions made on their reserve. The legendary, landmark case in constitutional law became known as the Corbiere Decision.

I often think of Gary and his family, including his dad, John (Duke) Corbiere. I often think of how Gary went from an undersized howitzer of a hockey player to a famed lawyer who fought for what his dad believed in.