I’m suing Frank Stronach – and yes, I’m in it for the money

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Jane Boon is a writer who lives in New York.

Frank Stronach, the billionaire founder and former CEO and chair of Magna International, faces the first of two well-publicized criminal trials on Feb. 2. He has been charged with 18 sex crimes with 13 women, including rape and forcible confinement.

I’m not one of the criminal complainants. But I did have an encounter with Mr. Stronach in a Magna guesthouse while I was a 19-year-old intern at the company in December, 1986. After hearing Michael Wilchesky, a savvy partner at Rochon Genova, being interviewed about the criminal accusations against Mr. Stronach, I researched his cases and reputation and reached out. And last summer, with Mr. Wilchesky’s help, I filed a civil claim against Mr. Stronach and Magna for alleged sexual assault, seeking $4-million plus punitive damages.

I’ve wondered why I am the only person to have filed a civil suit in the 20 months since criminal charges were first levelled against Mr. Stronach, since I’m certain there are others who had similar experiences. A November report from the Office of the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime about the obstacles faced by survivors of sexual violence in seeking justice helps explain: We face headwinds in reporting our experience, from difficult decisions around whether to speak to the police, reconciling oneself to the intrusiveness of sharing therapeutic records, to the potential for reliving that initial trauma in court.

I had qualms at first about seeking damages, too. I worried it might detract from the seriousness of the allegations. And like too many survivors, I worried that I might be seen as a greedy gold-digger, and thus dismissed.

But then I realized that this fear – that there’s something shabby and diminishing about seeking monetary redress – is the result of how our society has been conditioned.

Consider how a rogues’ gallery of prominent, wealthy men accused of sexual assault have defended themselves against civil suits. Cassie Ventura “resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’s reputation and seeking a payday,” claimed Sean Combs’s lawyer, after Ms. Ventura accused the rapper of rape and sexual assault. Donald Trump has said he’d been “accused by four or five women who got paid to make up stories about me.” In reference to one of R. Kelly’s many accusers, his lawyer said, “All she’s asking for is money. There’s no restraining order, there’s no apology, it’s just money, that’s the motive.” And at Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard’s sexual assault trial, his lawyer Brian Greenspan said “gold-digging runs deep” in response to one of the complainants’ participation in a class-action suit against his client.

Mr. Stronach has also relied on this rhetorical strategy. “Women might say ‘Look, that way we can collect some money this way or that way,’ ” he told the CBC in 2024. “It’s poverty, it’s poverty, that’s what the problem is.” And in his statement of defence for my lawsuit, my allegations are described as an “after-the-fact attempt to leverage other allegations against Stronach.”

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It’s clearly in the interest of these men and their lawyers to make assertions of avarice. After all, it’s an easy, effective smear that taps into a common myth about sexual assault complainants: that they make false accusations of sexual misconduct to extract settlements. But false accusations are extremely rare in Canada, comprising 2 to 4 per cent of reports. Moreover, sexual assault remains one of the least reported crimes; in 2019, Statistics Canada found that only 6 per cent of incidents were reported to the police.

So when it comes to my own case against Mr. Stronach, I’d like to be clear about something: Any claims that I’m “in it for the money” have absolutely no adverse effect on me.

That’s because I am in it for the money.

Money, of course, is not the only goal. I believe women pursuing civil sexual-assault cases can and should be able to own their truth, and that accountability and claiming agency are also critical. But there are financial and emotional costs of being sexually abused – and I will not be shamed into not seeking reparations.

Discussions of sexual assault often overlook the price of being a victim. Studies estimate the annual cost of violence against women in Canada to be in the billions of dollars. I myself incurred substantial direct and indirect costs resulting from my encounter with Mr. Stronach. Because the sex was unprotected, I was sure six months later that he had given me a sexually transmitted infection before tests revealed otherwise; absent reliable and accessible testing for HIV, I worried for years that I had contracted the virus. And as I began my career as an engineer, I became wary of male bosses – a nervousness and tendency for avoidance that created precarity for me, in a profession that is considered very stable. In my civil suit’s statement of claim, I was able to explain how that one evening had consequences that were felt for years.

While defendants in criminal cases have the right to remain silent, civil suits give both plaintiffs and defendants the opportunity to question each other under oath and call each other as witnesses. They also require all parties to exchange all documents that may be relevant. In other words, a civil suit is a two-way street. Although Mr. Stronach’s lawyers have rebuffed my efforts to interview him for earlier articles, I have no hesitation about telling my story during discovery, and I look forward to hearing his.

I also have questions for Magna. I believe that there had to have been at least some complicity on the part of his company and the members of his hand-picked board in what happened. Last October, in response to the rape allegations against Mr. Stronach, reporters from The Globe and Mail reached out to 20 directors and eight executives from Magna during Mr. Stronach’s time at the company, and got almost no replies. Magna declined to make any of its current executives available for an interview. This corporate stonewalling was unacceptable to me, and my inclusion of Magna in my lawsuit means that Mr. Wilchesky and I will have the opportunity to ask pertinent questions about the company’s knowledge, involvement and/or acquiescence to Mr. Stronach’s alleged grooming and abuse. Was the sight of Mr. Stronach hand-feeding fruit to a teenager – as he did to me that evening – so commonplace that it didn’t merit mention? Did the Magna guesthouse at Simeon Park serve a purpose beyond being Mr. Stronach’s playpen? Did anyone ever say anything about the CEO’s behaviour?

This process will probably take a couple of years, and although I have no illusions about having complete control over what happens, the lawsuit means that I will have a say. I look forward to meeting those moments. I have confidence in my story and its ability to stand up to scrutiny.

There are other benefits, too. Despite its length and complexity, civil litigation need not be costly. Many lawyers are prepared to take these kinds of cases on contingency, which means that they get paid as a percentage of any money received/awarded (and only if successful). As a result, the potentially disqualifying out-of-pocket expenses for the clients are much reduced.

Civil lawsuits are an imperfect vehicle for survivors to hold their perpetrators to account. But they are an important option, given the ways that criminal cases can retraumatize the complainants and deliver unsatisfying outcomes. Civil litigation is a different way of holding perpetrators accountable. And while the monetary aspect remains taboo, that stigma is just another unfair burden placed on survivors.

So yes: I’m in it for the money. But money is a valid form of justice all the same.