GFL office hit with 10 bullets in overnight shooting, extending string of violent acts

A GFL Environmental Inc. office building in north Toronto was hit with a barrage of bullets overnight this week, extending the string of attacks on GFL-linked property, equipment and executive homes over the past four months.

Employees of the waste management giant arrived for work at a GFL hauling yard on Thursday morning and found the glass front entrance shattered, with bullet holes in the front door’s metal frame as well as in the front wall.

Police say 10 bullets were fired. Investigators are now trying to collect surveillance footage from the area to determine what time the incident occurred. No injuries were reported.

The shooting happened just weeks after the homes of two executives tied to GFL were hit by bullets in what police have described as a targeted attack.

Just before midnight on Sept. 29, shots were fired at the front entrance of chief executive Patrick Dovigi’s home in Toronto’s Rosedale neighbourhood. Less than an hour later, the front door of GFL’s former senior vice-president, Ted Manziaris, who continues to consult for the company, was sprayed with nine bullets.

At the time, Mr. Dovigi disputed the police narrative that these were targeted shootings and instead described the incident at his home as a botched robbery.

There has also been a series of arson attacks against GFL properties and equipment in Ontario this summer. Police in Windsor say they believe six GFL vehicles – including a dump truck and cube van – were deliberately set ablaze on June 27, causing about $1-million in damage. Then on July 1, someone destroyed six more trucks at an industrial yard used by Green Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in Vaughan, about a 10-minute drive from the hauling yard that was recently hit. GFL owns a large stake in GIP.

Four days after the GIP incident, emergency crews found company machinery had been set ablaze at a construction site adjacent to Highway 400, also in Vaughan.

Windsor police, York Regional Police and the Ontario Provincial Police are all investigating but have declined to say whether they believe the incidents are connected.

GFL is traded on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange and has grown to become one of the four largest waste-management companies in Canada and the U.S. by continuously acquiring smaller rivals. Its largest shareholders are private equity company BC Partners and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. GFL currently has a $22-billion market value, despite losing $2.6-billion since going public in March, 2020.

GFL did not return a request for comment about the latest shooting, which was first reported by Bloomberg.