WARNING: This story references sexual assault allegations and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
A woman said she tried to fight back against Frank Stronach and repeatedly urged him to “please stop” as the Canadian businessman raped her inside a hotel room back in 1990, court heard on Monday.
“I kept struggling, fighting him, saying, ‘No, Frank, stop,’” said the woman, crying as she told the court about the alleged attack.
“Stop, please, I beg you, stop. Don’t do this. Don’t do this.”
The woman, who is now 71, was very emotional throughout her testimony, often bursting into tears as she testified.
Stronach, 93, faces a total of 12 charges, including sexual assault and forcible confinement. Two of the counts, rape and attempted rape, are considered historical charges as they were abolished when the Criminal Code was amended in 1983 to create the offence of sexual assault.
Stronach, founder of auto-parts giant Magna International, has denied the allegations and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The woman is the fifth of seven female complainants to testify. Their allegations span the period between 1977 and 1990.
On Monday, the complainant told court she met Stronach through a mutual friend in 1980. She said over a period of a few months, she would go to Rooney’s, the restaurant Stronach owned, where she would see him.
She said she never really got to know him that well, other than when she might say hi at Rooney’s.
The woman told court that she hadn’t seen Stronach in years but then ran into him at Rooney’s in 1990. Months later, she said she saw him at a hotel restaurant located in Markham or Scarborough as she was waiting for a client, sometime in November of that year.
Stronach watches a woman testify about his alleged sexual assault against her. (Alexandra Newbould/CBC)
The woman said Stronach sat down with her, that they chatted for a bit, and he asked for her number.
During that meeting, the woman, who had just months earlier given birth, told court that she became very emotional as she discussed with Stronach her breakup with her boyfriend.
The woman said Stronach was very understanding, tried to console her and suggested they continue their conversation in his hotel suite.
She said she trusted him and thought it was a simple courteous invite.
Once inside the hotel room, she said Stronach slipped off her purse and jacket, put his arms around her and walked her backward to the bed.
She said while she was on the bed, he started to undo the buttons of her top.
‘Please don’t do this’
“I said ‘Frank, no no, this is not what I want, please don’t do this. I thought we were just going to talk. Please don’t do this.’”
She told court she was trying to keep her top closed, but he snapped it open. She said Stronach then pulled her bra above her chest. He pulled her skirt to her chest, then pulled off her underwear and pantyhose, she told court.
She said she didn’t know how to defend herself, except verbally, by repeatedly telling him to stop.
The woman said his response was “something like, ‘You’ll be OK, you’ll be OK. Everything’s OK.'”
She said at one point, Stronach pulled down his pants and used his legs to force her legs apart.
‘I wasn’t strong enough’
“In fact, I had bruises afterwards on my knees because I was trying so hard to keep my legs together, tight together, so that he wouldn’t be able to enter me,” she said.
“But I wasn’t strong enough.”
She said Stronach had intercourse with her, ejaculated and did not use protection.
She said throughout the alleged attack, she was crying, but that he was “just wild” and had become a different person from the gentle and kind man she had known.
“He became a beast,” she told court.
She said the whole ordeal lasted between 20 minutes and half an hour. When it was over, she said Stronach kept asking her if she was OK.
‘No, I’m not OK’
“And I kept saying, ‘No, I’m not OK. I’m not OK.’ And he kept saying, ‘Oh, it’s OK.’ Like, ‘we’ll get together again.’
And I go, ‘No, no, not after this.’”
Crown prosecutor Julia Bellehumeur questions the woman about details of the alleged attack. (Alexandra Newbould/CBC)
She said Stronach escorted her to the door of the hotel room. The woman said she then went to the elevator, down to the lobby, got into her car and drove home.
She told court that along with the bruising on her knees, she suffered vaginal bleeding from the alleged attack. She also said she had some bruises around her waistline and neckline.
The woman said she never spoke to or saw Stronach again. She said she decided to come forward to police in June 2024 after seeing a news item that said he had been charged for sexual misconduct related offences.
Defence challenges woman over dates, credibility
During cross-examination, Stomach’s lawyer Leora Shemesh challenged the woman on her testimony Monday compared to previous statements to police, as well as her overall credibility.
For example, the woman told court that she and her friend saw Stronach at Rooney’s in 1990, months before the alleged attack. But Shemesh said Rooney’s had closed in 1988.
“I thought it was Rooney’s. I assumed it was Rooney’s,” the woman said.
Shemesh also noted that the woman had never told police about meeting up with Stronach at Rooney’s, and that her testimony on Monday was the first time she had made mention of it.
Shemesh also raised an inteview the woman gave to police in June 2024 in which the officer noted that she had been raped in 1980, not 1990 and she had known Stronach from the 70s, not the early 80s.
As well, the officer noted that the woman had been messaged by Stronach to go out for dinner and that they had had drinks in his hotel room before she said he attacked her.
Stronach’s lawyer Leora Shemesh cross-examines the woman about her testimony on Monday in comparison to previous statements to police. (Alexandra Newbould/CBC)
The woman said she may have confused the years but insisted Stronach had attacked her in 1990, just after her daughter had been born. She denied that Stronach ever messaged her for dinner or that they had drinks in the hotel room.
She did acknowledge that she couldn’t remember the name of the hotel where the alleged attack happened, and that she had erased it from her mind.
‘That’s a lie’
Shemesh also questioned the woman about her court testimony denying seeing media coverage related to Stronach.
Shemesh said at one meeting with police, the woman said she had seen media coverage, including a news program in which a woman, with her face blacked out, spoke about her experiences with Stronach and her face was blacked out.
“I didn’t say that I saw media coverage. Never,” the woman said.
“That’s a lie,” Shemesh said.
“I don’t remember saying that I saw media coverage. All I know is that I saw that … he was up for charges. That’s all I know.”
Shemesh also focused on various legal issues the woman has been involved in, including being sued 25 times.
‘I don’t believe it’s 25, but if you say it’s 25 and you counted it,” the woman said.
Those lawsuits, Shemesh said, included the woman being accused of falsifying a contract and that she had falsified or forged her brother’s signature.
“No, of course not. I didn’t falsify anything,” she said.
The woman said her company lost that case because they weren’t very good at “keeping records of things. We weren’t legally savvy.”
Shemesh also raised an ongoing lawsuit by a man who claims he was falsely arrested and placed into a holding cell based on false claims made by the woman.
The woman denied that the man had been falsely arrested, and insisted that he had threatened her life.
Shemesh is continuing her cross-examination of the woman on Tuesday.