MANDEL: Could new reforms finally clamp down on 'catch-and-release' bail?
· Toronto Sun
Maybe at last, the message is getting through to our courts: Repeat dangerous criminals should remain behind bars while they await trial.
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So for now, Gergy Anthony Gorburn isn’t going anywhere. As of next week, hopefully more accused like him will also remain behind bars when Ottawa’s new bail reform law comes into effect.
This week in Barrie, Gobrun, 51, was denied bail for the second time after he and four others from the GTA were charged in the violent kidnapping, torture and attempted murder of a Mississauga man held at an abandoned Orillia gas station. When the OPP rescued the victim, they alleged he’d been bound and beaten and was taken to a hospital in serious condition.
At his first attempt at bail last December, Gorburn was ordered detained by the justice of the peace. At his recent bail review, Superior Court Justice Donna Kellway found the JP made no legal error and upheld the decision to keep him in custody pending his trial. The evidence heard at the hearing and her reasons for denying bail are covered by a routine publication ban.
But it isn’t difficult to guess at least one of the reasons — the public would be outraged that someone with his criminal past, now accused of such a vicious crime, would be able to slip off his orange jail clothes and await trial in the comfort of his Toronto home.
Other suspects released on bail
On the night of Sept. 27, 2025, Orillia OPP responded to a 911 call about a suspicious vehicle and people wearing masks near an abandoned building. When they arrived, officers saw a U-Haul van parked in front of what was once a gas station and when they entered the building, they found the bloodied victim, his identity protected under a court-imposed publication ban.
Five suspects were located inside and charged with kidnapping, forcible confinement and break-and-enter. Attempted murder charges were added 10 days later.
All but Gorburn were eventually released on bail, though one of the suspects was returned to custody after he was accused of breaching his conditions.
According to CTV, Gorburn has a long criminal history of violent crimes that includes assault, robbery with a weapon and home invasion . He first appeared in the pages of the Toronto Sun in 2012, when he was arrested in Downsview on drug possession charges — allegedly 190 g of cocaine — and possession of a loaded, 9mm, semi-automatic handgun with 30 rounds of ammunition.
Gorburn was convicted of numerous firearm and drug offences and sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison. In 2017, he appealed his convictions and sentence, arguing his trial lawyer should have challenged the Toronto Police search as unconstitutional. Ontario’s highest court disagreed.
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Default option for bail soon to change
Despite his record, he had good reason to expect that he could get bail — “catch and release” has long been the order of the day with courts’ “default” option to grant bail rather than hold people in our overcrowded jails.
Too often, those released have gone on to be arrested for yet more crimes. Tragically, sometimes those crimes have included murder. The most shocking, of course, was the slaying of rookie OPP Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala by Randall McKenzie, who was out on bail at the time . The ensuing outrage by the police and public alike led to the federal government finally passing its long-promised bail reform law that comes into force on July 15.
The heralded changes include a new “reverse-onus provision” for certain repeat or violent offenders that makes jail, and not bail, the default starting point for those accused of another offence. For example, anyone charged with their third violent crime or breaking into a home will have to show why they should be released instead of Crown attorneys having to go through hoops to prove why their detention is justified.
It’s a long time coming — and hopefully the end of the dizzying revolving door of justice.