Austro-Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach waits for the start of a TV debate after national elections in Vienna, Austria on Sept. 29, 2013. Stronach, the 91-year-old founder of Magna International, is facing 13 charges involving 10 complainants, including rape.Kerstin Joensson/The Associated Press
Legal efforts by Frank Stronach’s granddaughter to force the Stronach Group to hand over any human resource complaints and settlements it may have paid because of alleged sexual harassment by Mr. Stronach should be considered a fishing expedition and rejected, court heard Thursday.
Lawyers for Belinda Stronach, the Stronach Group’s chief executive, and Alon Ossip, the business’s former chief executive, argued that the notice of motion brought recently by Selena Stronach, Belinda’s niece, as part of a long dispute over the distribution of the family fortune is too vague and irrelevant.
In the wake of 13 criminal charges against Frank Stronach, his granddaughter, Selena, filed materials in court trying to compel her aunt and Mr. Ossip to disclose what knowledge they had, if any, of claims being paid out over Mr. Stronach’s alleged predatory behaviour.
On Thursday, the issue was argued in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for the first time.
In 2019, Selena Stronach and her father, Andrew, filed lawsuits that alleged the family fortune had not been evenly distributed among his heirs.
Selena Stronach has argued that information about any settlements is evidence of mismanagement of corporate assets, which affects the family trust of which she is a beneficiary.
However, lawyers for Belinda Stronach and Mr. Ossip argued that the request needed to contain particulars, such as persons involved and dates. No such evidence was provided, said Mark Gelowitz, lawyer for Mr. Ossip. Mr. Gelowitz characterized the request as a “fishing expedition.”
“A plaintiff can’t just make up allegations out of whole cloth and then demand that the defendant prove the negative,” Mr. Gelowitz told the court.
For documents showing settlements or complaints to be relevant to the case, the plaintiff would need to provide some evidence that the misuse of funds happened and that Belinda Stronach or Mr. Ossip were aware of it.
However, lawyers for Selena Stronach emphasized that their opponents have not denied the existence of settlement documents.
“We’re talking about very specific documents,” said Matthew Gottlieb of Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb, adding that they shouldn’t be hard to find.
“It makes one wonder, how many are there that they say they need dates and times and people involved?”
Justice Peter Osborne reserved his decision.
Mr. Stronach, the 91-year-old founder of Magna International, is facing 13 charges involving 10 complainants, including rape, indecent assault, sexual assault and forcible confinement. The incidents are alleged to have started in the late 1970s and span more than 40 years.
In June, The Globe and Mail also published a first-person account by Jane Boon, who described being pressed into having sex with Mr. Stronach when she was a 19-year-old student working at Magna and he was the 54-year-old CEO. The incident allegedly took place in 1986 at a corporate guest house.
Ms. Boon’s article was mentioned numerous times in Thursday’s hearing as an example of company-owned assets being used in Mr. Stronach’s predatory sexual conduct.
None of the allegations against Mr. Stronach have been proven in court.
The Globe reached out to Mr. Stronach’s lawyer for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.
In an interview on CBC’s Fifth Estate on Wednesday, Mr. Stronach said he did “nothing wrong” and that “we have a lot of data which totally will prove those things are lies.”
Mr. Gelowitz also pointed out that the timeline of Mr. Stronach’s alleged sexual assaults did not line up with Belinda Stronach’s and Alon Ossip’s leadership roles at the Stronach Group.