Judge won’t jail Ontario billionaire Frank Stronach for sexual offence — ‘I’m not going to order custody for a man who is 94’ - Toronto Star

The Crown on Thursday asked Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy to impose a six-month jail sentence. Molloy is set to release her decision later this year.

Frank Stronach arrives at the Toronto Superior Court on Thursday.

Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy will not be sending billionaire businessman Frank Stronach to jail for indecent assault, despite the Crown’s request for a custodial sentence.

Although Molloy she has not yet settled on the final punishment, she told a Toronto court after hearing day-long legal arguments that “I’m not going to order custody for a man who is 94.”

The prosecution was seeking a six‑month custodial sentence for a sexual offence decades ago — a position the defence argued was “excessive” and instead asked for an absolute discharge.

Molloy plans to release her decision Dec. 11, but said she wanted him to know he’s not heading to jail “to remove that level of stress.” In June, she convicted him of indecently assaulting V.T., a woman now in her 70s.

At a trial earlier this year, she testified that in the fall of 1977, when she was 25, she had dinner with Stronach, who was then 45. She testified she knew the auto-parts magnate socially; after dinner, he invited her to a midtown apartment and, once there, pushed her from behind over the arm of a heavily padded chair and lifted her skirt. Stronach, fully clothed, then pressed his penis against her vaginal area, under his clothes and over her underwear.

No penetration occurred; she gathered her things and left.

The Crown is also asking that Stronach be added to a sex offender registry for 10 years — which defence lawyer Leora Shemesh said she “vehemently” opposes.

In her decision finding Stronach guilty earlier this summer, Molloy concluded the evidence is clear: V.T. did not consent, and there was “nothing she said or did to give any impression to the contrary.”

Pushing her over a chair and pushing her skirt up would be sufficient for the charge of indecent assault, Molloy wrote. What he did after that, she wrote, is “quite simply, gross and disgusting conduct.”

Stronach initially faced 12 charges, several of them laid under the old Criminal Code provisions that existed before 1983, when the broader category of sexual assault replaced offences such as rape and indecent assault.

As the evidence unfolded at trial, much of the Crown’s case unravelled under intense cross‑examination, leaving him found not guilty on 10 charges and guilty on two counts involving two complainants. 

Molloy later granted a rare post-conviction mistrial on the sexual assault count after Shemesh argued that new information raised serious concerns about the credibility of the complainant. The Crown is asking the Ontario Court of Appeal to overturn the mistrial ruling and reinstate the conviction.

On Thursday, at the start of the sentencing hearing, V.T. read her victim impact statement. She used walking aids to guide her to the witness box, where court officers helped her into the chair.

“I am 20 years younger than the defendant. I felt ambushed. I felt overpowered. I felt my physical privacy was violated without my consent. My body and my sense of security were instantly injured,” she said slowly but clearly, reading her statement.

She continued by describing how the assault wounded her confidence and her personal sense of safety. 

“I felt shock and disappointment upon seeing the defendant’s blank expression,” she said. “I felt that I deserved an apology. I was upset when none was forthcoming; I am still dismayed.”

In court, Stronach sat beside his lawyer listening to V.T.‘s statement.

Before Molloy’s bombshell announcement, Shemesh argued that sending Stronach to jail was an “excessive position.”

She emphasized that her Austrian-born client has no prior criminal record and has led an “extremely pro-social life,” and pointed to his business achievements, philanthropy, devotion to his family and employees, and contributions to Canada where he founded auto parts giant Magna International.

Shemesh also maintained that the offence was less serious than the ones the Crown was relying on as precedent to support its position, many of which involved intercourse without consent, incest, kidnapping or an abuse of trust.

Finally, Shemesh said Stronach had already suffered substantial reputational and personal consequences from the prosecution and the public allegations against him, asking, “How much more” punishment was required.

While acknowledging that age, delay and “collateral consequences” cannot make an otherwise fit sentence unfit, she argued that denunciation and deterrence could be achieved without imprisonment.

Crown attorney Jelena Vlacic argued Stronach’s actions warranted jail time. He pushed V.T. into a “physically vulnerable position,” there was a 20-year age gap and she was alone in a residence he had taken her to, she said.

“There are elements of trust and vulnerabilities here,” and there “is also an enduring impact,” Vlacic told the judge.

She also asked Molloy to reject Shemesh’s characterization that the offence was “at the lowest end” of the sexual assault scale.

As V.T. left the courthouse, she declined to comment.

Frank Stronach, left, arrives at the Toronto Superior Court with his lawyer, Leora Shemesh, right, on Thursday.

Although the indecent assault law dates back nearly half a century, Stronach must be sentenced under the laws that existed at the time. In 1977, indecent assault carried a maximum of five years in prison. 

Sentences for historical indecent‑assault convictions vary widely depending on the nature of the assault and the lasting impact on the complainant.

Before signalling that jail was off the table, Molloy asked Vlacic what she would recommend instead. Vlacic said she would strongly urge a six‑month conditional sentence, with full house arrest except for medical appointments and court appearances. Stronach still faces a second sex‑assault trial next May in Newmarket, where six women allege he assaulted them between 1988 and February 2024.

If Molloy opts for a suspended sentence, Vlacic said she would recommend counselling focused on “sexual boundaries” for the nonagenarian.

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In the months since the conviction, Stronach has already seen public consequences.

The town of Aurora removed his name from a recreation complex, and Newmarket renamed a park, distancing the communities from a man who has lived in York Region for decades and built his auto-parts empire there.

Stronach did not testify at his trial. Leaving the courthouse on Thursday, he offered a brief smile as he got into a waiting SUV and said, “Justice will prevail.”

Betsy Powell is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and courts for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @powellbetsy.