A GFL truck collects recycling in Toronto in January.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
The man who police allege is responsible for two shootings that targeted the homes of executives who work for Canadian waste giant GFL Environmental Inc. and its sister construction company, Green Infrastructure Partners Inc., was granted bail on Tuesday afternoon.
Ilan Philosophe, 42, was released to two relatives, who pledged a combined $800,000 to secure his bail. Under the conditions of his release, Mr. Philosophe is barred from possessing any weapons, contacting anyone he knows who works for GFL and he must live under house arrest.
The evidence presented in court is protected under a publication ban.
Upon hearing the news, Mr. Philosophe – who has been in custody since his arrest five days ago and appeared in court remotely – seemed overcome with emotion, smiling and nodding his head, as Justice of the Peace Sisay Woldemichael announced the decision.
Mr. Philosophe, the founder of Astro Excavating Inc. and its offshoot company, Astro Shoring Inc., was arrested by the Toronto police’s guns and gangs unit late Thursday.
Ilan Philosophe, owner of Astro Excavating and Astro Shoring.
He was charged with two counts of discharging a firearm in a place that is reckless to others, and two counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. The charges are connected to two shootings that occurred about an hour apart in September, 2024, which targeted the Toronto homes of GFL chief executive officer Patrick Dovigi and his long-time business associate, Ted Manziaris, who now works with GIP.
Last week, The Globe and Mail reported that within hours of those shootings, the Toronto police began investigating whether the shootings were tied to an increasingly bitter feud between Astro and GIP.
In April, 2025, Mr. Philosophe was charged with criminal harassment relating to a series of taunting and often vulgar and expletive-laden text messages that he had allegedly been sending GIP executives for more than a year.
After that arrest, Mr. Philosophe spoke to The Globe in what would become a series of interviews that took place over the past year in which Astro’s founder spoke about his disdain for GFL and GIP – he refers to them interchangeably – calling the companies bullies. He acknowledged sending “rude” text messages, but he denied having anything to do with the violence: “I have absolutely nothing to do with any of this, attacks or anything, on GFL. That’s 100 per cent.”
Mr. Philosophe’s next court appearance is Friday, May 8.