Content material Warning: This text discusses sexual assault allegations and will affect people who’ve skilled sexual violence or know somebody affected.
Trial Particulars and Expenses
Frank Stronach, a 93-year-old Canadian businessman and founding father of Magna Worldwide, faces 12 prices in a Toronto sexual assault trial, together with sexual assault and forcible confinement. Two counts—rape and tried rape—stem from historic allegations earlier than the Prison Code’s 1983 amendments changed these phrases with sexual assault.
The trial, overseen by Superior Courtroom Justice Anne Molloy with out a jury, entails seven feminine complainants whose allegations span 1977 to 1990, together with one incident in suburban Scarborough. Stronach awaits a separate trial in Newmarket later this yr after authorities cut up the circumstances.
Three girls have already testified about their alleged assaults. All seven complainants will seem on this continuing.
Fourth Complainant’s Testimony
On the trial’s fifth day, a girl now in her 70s testified that Stronach tried to rape her in a midtown Toronto condo in 1977. She described eating with him at a restaurant he owned on the time earlier than accepting an invite to his condo.
As soon as inside, Stronach briefly disappeared, then approached from behind and pushed her over the padded arm of a chair in an try and rape her, she said. No penetration occurred. She stood up, grabbed her purse and coat, and left the condo.
Cross-Examination Highlights
Throughout cross-examination, Stronach’s lawyer, Leora Shemesh, engaged in heated exchanges whereas difficult the girl’s account utilizing her prior statements and a 2024 police interview. In that interview, the girl had mentioned she didn’t view herself as a sufferer of the alleged assault.
She responded firmly to Shemesh: “I’m a survivor.”
Shemesh additionally questioned the situation, noting Stronach’s affiliation with a downtown Harbourfront unit in 1977. The girl maintained she was not mistaken concerning the midtown handle.
