Open this photo in gallery:
Frank Stronach speaks at his final Magna annual general meeting in Markham, Ont., in 2011, when he was chairman. Stronach was charged with 18 offences involving 13 complainants in 2024.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The man long touted as one of Canada’s great success stories is set to stand trial in Toronto this week, as the first of two cases accusing Frank Stronach of sexual offences against several women over decades begins.
Stronach, the founder and former head of the auto parts giant Magna International, faces a dozen charges involving seven complainants whose identities are protected by a publication ban.
The allegations relate to incidents spanning the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.
The renowned billionaire businessman, who is expected to face a separate trial in Newmarket, Ont., later this year, has denied all allegations against him.
Peel Regional Police charged Stronach with 18 offences involving 13 complainants in 2024, but the case was later split into two.
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Stronach initially chose a trial by jury in Toronto, then switched to one with a judge alone. The case is set to be heard by Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy, a veteran judge.
In Canada, there is no statute of limitations for indictable offences, which are more serious, meaning someone can find themselves facing trial years or decades later. Sexual assault is a hybrid offence, so prosecutors can choose, based on the specifics of the case, whether to proceed by indictment or as a summary offence.
Some of the charges Stronach faces in Toronto, such as rape and attempted rape, were abolished in the early 1980s as the Criminal Code was amended to create the offence of sexual assault.
Cases involving historical charges can be complicated and technical, and come with challenges for both prosecutors and defence counsel, said Adam Weisberg, a defence lawyer in Toronto who is not involved in Stronach’s trials.
“For the prosecution … you have evidence that is recounting events that happened a long time ago, so you have to deal with the frailties of human memory,” he said.
“With regard to the defence, there can be difficulties with respect to the preservation of evidence or items they might have preserved otherwise, had they known there were going to be allegations.”
Someone who is charged with a crime over something that happened a week earlier is more likely to have photos, text messages, calendars and other material that might help in their defence, he said. Those things are probably gone years down the line, he said.
Historical charges are tried based on the law as it was at the time, but typically under the current rules regarding evidence and procedures, Weisberg said.
That means someone charged with a sexual offence that predates Canada’s rape shield laws will still have to abide by them at trial, he said.
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If evidentiary or procedural rules have evolved in a way that affects a substantive right, however, the accused may be entitled to follow the rules that were in place at the time of the alleged offence, he said.
For example, he said, “if a defence existed in 1970 and then is legislated away in 2020, you’d be entitled to have the defence as it existed in 1970 because that’s a substantive right.”
Meanwhile, those found guilty of a historical offence are sentenced under the “most favourable” regime, whether that’s the range that was in place at the time or the one used now, he added.
Stronach, who was born in Austria, rose to prominence and wealth after creating Magna in a rented garage in the 1950s, eventually turning it into a multinational conglomerate. He also founded the Stronach Group, a company that specializes in horse racing, and later Stronach International in 2018, a company focusing on organic foods and “micro-electric mobility.”
Stronach stepped down as Magna’s chairman in 2011 and from its board a year later as he sought to launch a political career in Austria.
He has had no ties to the company since, Magna says.
