Crown in Frank Stronach trial only proceeding with seven of 12 original charges

TORONTO – Prosecutors in the sexual assault trial of billionaire businessman Frank Stronach will only be seeking convictions regarding four of the seven complainants in his Toronto case, they told the court Monday as the defence started presenting its evidence.

The 93-year-old auto parts magnate has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges related to alleged incidents stretching as far back as the 1970s, but over the last week, the Crown has gradually whittled down the list of counts on which it will proceed.

Crown attorney Jelena Vlacic said Monday that after reviewing the evidence, the prosecution concedes it can’t meet the threshold of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on two charges of sexual assault related to two complainants — the fourth and fifth ones to testify.

Last week, the Crown said it would not proceed with a charge of attempted rape related to the third complainant for the same reason. 

Prosecutors previously withdrew a charge of forcible confinement and sought to withdraw a charge of sexual assault related to the sixth complainant to testify.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy suggested last week Stronach would be found not guilty on the attempted rape charge and the counts related to the sixth complainant. Defence lawyer Leora Shemesh is asking the judge to enter not-guilty verdicts on all five charges at issue.

Prosecutors are required to assess their prospect of conviction on an ongoing basis and withdraw charges or invite acquittal when they don’t think they have it, said Alison Craig, a defence lawyer based in Toronto who is not involved in the case.

Still, “it’s perhaps more unusual than it should be,” she said.

“Quite often, even when the Crown’s evidence is a mess and quite obviously an acquittal is going to result … they still forge ahead and try and get a conviction, so I’m pleased to see the Crown is doing the right thing.”

Prosecutors finished presenting their evidence last week after calling all seven complainants and a friend of the final complainant as witnesses.

The defence began laying out its case Monday, calling four witnesses, including Stronach’s former driver and a real estate professional who dealt with the waterfront building where Stronach had a condo decades ago.

Glenn Anderson testified he started working as Stronach’s driver after a stint as a bouncer at Rooney’s, the dining and nightlife complex Stronach owned.

For roughly a decade, he drove the businessman to work events, meetings and other engagements whenever Stronach called on him, he said.

Sometimes he ran errands or drove other people home without Stronach, Anderson testified, though he never communicated with the people in the car. It would be “totally impossible” to remember specific people he had driven, he said.

Anderson said he drove Stronach’s car or his own company car. Stronach only ever had Cadillacs, no European or sports cars, he said.

“He was never a car guy,” he said.

The final complainant to testify said Stronach had picked her up in a low-slung, two-door foreign car she believed was a Porsche.

Under cross-examination, Anderson said there may have been times when Stronach drove himself to the Magna International office in the morning or to the racetrack with his wife on weekends.

Court heard Anderson told police in 2024 that Stronach had several cars, with different makes and models, but the former driver said he’d meant Stronach might have had a pickup truck at his horse farm or his wife might have had a Jeep.

The trial, which began mid-February after some delay, is set to continue Tuesday with several defence witnesses, most of them related to the first complainant.

Stronach is also set to face trial in Newmarket, Ont., later this year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2026.