CONTACT SHARON G. SABOURIN

• Telephone: 705.268.4242
• Toll Free: 1.800.569.1673
• FAX: 705.264.1646
• E-mail: ssabourin@gbklawyers.ca

Sharon G. Sabourin is a criminal defence lawyer serving clients across Northeastern Ontario and Nunavut. Born and raised in Northeastern Ontario, she is a Northerner through and through.  After having studied at the University of Western Ontario in London, she was called to the Ontario Bar in 2010 and Nunavut Bar in 2023.  Ms. Sabourin brings a rare blend of frontline trial experience, policy and enforcement insight, academic training, teaching, and community service to every file.

Her legal career began in 2007 as a summer student in various general practice law firms in Southwestern Ontario.  She then articled with the Crown Attorney’s Office in Timmins. Now nearly two decades into her legal career, Ms. Sabourin has acted in more than 300 trials, over 100 preliminary inquiries, and many jury trials. Her practice spans the full spectrum of criminal law, including homicide and criminal negligence causing death, constitutional questions, complex Controlled Drugs and Substances Act matters involving wiretaps and Garofoli applications, serious fraud and white‑collar offences, and proceedings where the Crown seeks Dangerous Offender designations. She regularly argues Charter applications, conducts multi‑day Gardiner hearings on sentencing, advances Gladue submissions, and litigates contested bail—up to and including homicide matters, bail reviews, Meyers detentions, and habeas corpus applications. She appears frequently in Timmins, Haileybury, Cochrane and all satellite courts along the highway 11 corridor,  fly-in satellite courts along the James Bay coast.  She also frequents further courthouse locations including: North Bay, Sudbury, Gore Bay, as well as in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay, and Baker Lake, and various other hamlets across the vast territory of Nunavut.

Clients and colleagues value Sharon’s calm, thorough, and strategic approach. She is empanelled by Legal Aid Ontario for Extremely Serious Matters and is often appointed to assist the court as amicus curiae, protect witness privacy or to conduct cross‑examinations when direct questioning is restricted. Before founding her criminal defence practice, she articled at the Timmins Crown Attorney’s Office and began her career on the public health and enforcement side of government, serving as a Senior Policy Advisor and Provincial Enforcement Coordinator for the Smoke‑Free Ontario Strategy. Appointed a Provincial Offences Officer in 2005, she coordinated a province‑wide network of approximately 200 officers, wrote and then led enforcement training, and gained practical, courtroom‑tested knowledge of investigations, evidence, and the Provincial Offences Act—experience that now informs her defence work.

Sharon’s academic foundation strengthens her advocacy. She earned her Juris Doctor from Western Law (2009), following a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Health Sciences (both with a Health Promotion specialization) from the University of Western Ontario. Her graduate research and multi‑institutional projects included quantitative analysis, data analysis work, and published scholarship on community health, political participation, and legal issues reinforcing the analytical rigour she applies to complex litigation. She has extensive teaching experience at Western University, Fanshawe College, Northern College, and Collège Boréal, covering subjects from health promotion and biomedical ethics to criminology, psychology, and Spanish, and she has been recognized with teaching awards and guest lectureships.

Committed to the profession and her community, Sharon has served in leadership roles with the Cochrane Law Association and its Criminal Defence Bar Committee and contributes to the Women’s Committee of the Criminal Law Association. Beyond the courthouse, she is an Emergency and Disaster Management volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross, a certified wildlife rehabilitator, and a dedicated citizen scientist with Birds Ontario and Birds Canada, as well as a certified instructor for the Firearms Safety Course (PAL) reflecting a deep connection to Northern communities and stewardship of the land.

Whether advancing a nuanced Charter argument, guiding a client through a complex jury trial, negotiating pragmatic resolutions, or mentoring students and junior counsel, Sharon brings discipline, empathy, and tenacity to her work. Her cross‑jurisdictional practice, breadth of subject‑matter experience, and record of service position her as a trusted advocate for clients facing their most serious legal challenges.

It is with great enthusiasm Ms. Sabourin enters the next chapter of her legal career in accepting a position to lead the Criminal Law Practice of GBK Lawyers.

She welcomes new clients and referrals for clients who have been charged with criminal offences. She may be reached at 705-268-4242 or by emailing ssabourin@gbklawyers.ca.