Two more charges will be withdrawn in the sexual assault trial of Frank Stronach, meaning the Canadian businessman is now facing seven counts, down from the original 12.
“We are not going to make submissions at the conclusion of the trial, that there is sufficient evidence to sustain findings of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt with respect to the allegations relating to … counts seven and eight on the indictment,” Crown prosecutor Jelena Vlacic told court on Monday.
When Frank Stronach’s sex assault trial got underway in Toronto last month, seven women were accusing him of sexual misconduct dating back decades.
It had the potential to be one of the most explosive trials the city has seen — Stronach, 93, an auto-parts tycoon and one of Canada’s richest men, was alleged to be a serial date rapist who preyed on young women in ’70s and ’80s Toronto.
Three-and-a-half weeks later, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy has heard from all seven women, and the Crown has closed its case.
For years, those who accused former Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard of sexual assault remained nameless. But now, one of them is speaking out in a new documentary.
Previously referred to as J.B. or the “Ottawa woman,” Jessica Baker is now revealing her identity as the survivor of a 2016 assault by Hoggard in a Toronto hotel room.
Scandalous pregnancy-faker Laura Owens isn’t the only Owens in her family with immeasurable levels of audacity.
Ronn Owens, a famous former talk radio host in San Francisco on KGO and father of Laura Owens, has filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, listing over $2.3 million in debts. Meanwhile, he and his spouse, journalist Jan Black, pull in $21,000 per month in pensions and Social Security. Somehow, the Owens family ran up more than $300,000 in debt this year alone and then opened a GoFundMe that pulled in over $130,000 from fans — many likely living on fixed incomes as Owens’ fans are mostly senior citizens.
“#MeToo changed our culture, but it couldn’t change our courts.” “No justice for the victim.” “Survivors of sexual assault need our understanding, not courts deaf to their complaints.”
Those and many, many other headlines and ledes blared out Friday that, in one form or the other, the woman known only as “E.M.,” who had alleged five Hockey Canada junior players had gang assaulted her in 2018, had been let down by the justice system or even wronged by it.
The whole world changed in the near-decade between two of the most high-profile sexual assault trials in recent Canadian history. But inside the courtroom, it was as if no time had passed at all.
Outside, the world had been fundamentally reordered by a pandemic, by a reality TV star twice elected U.S. President, by the murder of a Black man by a police officer on a Minneapolis street, and by a series of sexual-assault allegations against a high-profile Hollywood film producer, which catalyzed a global reckoning with how we view, talk about, and confront sexual violence. The #MeToo movement was supposed to have marked the end of the era where lecherous men could blithely cop a feel behind a cubicle and expect female discretion, and the beginning of a new one where the public operates from the starting assumption of “believe all women.” And in many workplaces, schools and community spaces, things did change.
It was the correct ruling in my view.
Five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team were acquitted of sexual assault on Thursday following a high-profile trial involving one complainant, identified only as E.M. due to a publication ban. Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia found Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote not guilty of sexual assault after saying that the complainant’s testimony was not found to be “either credible or reliable.”
Justice Carroccia says she didn’t find complainant’s evidence ‘credible or reliable’
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The first two lines of the Crown’s opening statement in April at the high-profile Hockey Canada sexual assault trial clearly articulated what would become the dominant issue in a trial that captivated the country’s attention.
“This is a case about consent,” Crown attorney Heather Donkers said. “And, equally as important, this is a case about what is not consent.”
It’s an issue that will be finely parsed by Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia when she delivers her verdicts Thursday in the case of five professional hockey players accused of sexually assaulting a young woman in a London, Ont. hotel room in 2018. Whether the judge finds the woman consented is yet to be decided; both sides have argued over what happened that night, and what it means with respect to Canadian law.
LONDON, Ont. — The complainant in the high-profile Hockey Canada sexual assault trial was a “fully consenting participant” who fabricated her allegations because she didn’t want to admit she chose to be “sexually adventurous” in a hotel room full of men she had just met, the defence argued Monday at the start of closing arguments.
The central issue in the case is whether the woman, whose identity is covered by a standard publication ban, consented to sexual activity with Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote, all members of the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team, in a room at the Delta Armouries hotel in the early hours of June 19, 2018, when she was 20 years old.
Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
The sentence was handed to Nygard, 83, by Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein in Toronto on Monday.
Last November, a jury found Nygard guilty of four counts of sexual assault following a six-week trial.
Ontario’s top court has upheld the sexual assault conviction of Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard, the former frontman for the band Hedley.
Hoggard was found guilty in June 2022 of sexual assault causing bodily harm against an Ottawa woman and later sentenced to five years behind bars.
He was released on bail hours later, pending his appeal.
Embattled billionaire Frank Stronach says he pities the women whose allegations of rape, assault and forcible confinement are the basis for the 13 sex crime charges against him.
Speaking publicly for the first time since he was arrested in June, the 91-year-old Stronach told The Fifth Estate he did “nothing wrong.”
“We have a lot of data which totally will prove those things are lies,” Stronach said in an interview in Toronto on Tuesday. He did not elaborate.
Peel Regional Police began investigating Ontario business magnate Frank Stronach after York Regional Police approached their neighbouring agency for assistance, a source with knowledge of the case told CBC News.
CBC is not naming the source, as they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Investigators have declined to say when police first learned of sexual assault allegations surrounding the 91-year-old billionaire, and why Stronach’s local police service north of Toronto sought help from another agency.
TORONTO – The granddaughter of billionaire businessman Frank Stronach is asking an Ontario court to order the family business to disclose any documents that might exist related to complaints of sexual misconduct against him and settlements involving complainants.
In a recent court filing, Selena Stronach argues media coverage of the sexual assault allegations against her grandfather suggest it is likely the alleged misconduct “occurred in the corporate environment and included the misuse of corporate assets.”
The filing is the latest in an ongoing legal battle over the management of The Stronach Group’s and the family’s wealth.
