Death, illness lead to unresolved end of 25-year-old case

The Ontario Securities Commission has dropped its case against developer Stuart Bruce McLaughlin.

The death of several key witnesses and the ailing health of the ageing defendant have forced the Ontario Securities Commission to throw out a case that’s spanned a quarter century. The OSC first alleged that Stuart Bruce McLaughlin, the developer behind Toronto’s Square One Mall, had used investor funds to advance personal interests in the mid-1980s, but never got to trial. The OSC couldn’t bring McLaughlin to court until another legal proceeding against him concluded, and McLaughlin dragged out that court fight by changing lawyers several times. McLaughlin is now in such poor health that he was deemed unable to testify.