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Off-reserve champion gone, not forgotten

Author

Windspeaker Staff

Volume

22

Issue

7

Year

2004

Page 28

On Aug. 8, Aboriginal lawyer Gary E. Corbiere, 41, drowned in Lake Simcoe in Ontario while out on his boat. He had a cottage on Georgina Island and travelled frequently to the mainland to work in Toronto.

His body was found on Aug. 12, and a memorial service was held in Newmarket on Aug. 16, followed by a funeral in Sault Ste. Marie on Aug. 19.

Corbiere was the lawyer who argued in the Supreme Court of Canada for, and won the right of, off-reserve people to have a substantial say in the decisions made on their reserves. The case has become known as the Corbiere decision.

Evelyn J. Baxter was a friend.

"I met [Gary] in 1988 at the University of Saskatchewan summer law program for Native people. Along with a few other students, we all formed a lasting friendship that carried us through our legal education and careers. He was a quiet guy who never tried to be the centre of attention. He preferred to sit back and watch the rest of us. Gary was very easy going, thoughtful and intellectual. He always thought before he spoke and never answered a question without saying, 'Hmmm. I have to think about that,'" she wrote in an e-mail to this publication.

She said Corbiere took on the now famous case on behalf of his family. He had only recently been called to the bar.

"Most lawyers would never dream of taking on a case like that on their own, but it didn't faze Gary at all. He enlisted the help of a couple of friends to do research, draft documents and court filings. His office was heaped with papers, but he knew where everything was. We all watched, amazed that he was doing this thing and that it was headed to the Supreme Court of Canada."

The victory changed the face of Aboriginal rights in Canada. Corbiere went on to practice criminal law in Toronto and to earn a master's degree in law.

He was sometimes seen as eccentric and was a committed athlete, using his daughters Renee and Alicia as weights and resistance in his workouts. He even considered making an exercise video for dads to show them how to incorporate their children into their workouts, said his partner Kim. He loved Elvis.

"We have all lost someone important and unique in Gary, and because he would never blow his own horn about who he was and what he did, I am doing it for him now," said Baxter. "I will miss him and think of him often. He was a good friend. Next time you receive your ballots in the mail, I ask you to remember Gary and thank him. I will."