O’LEARY CRASH
Wife charged in boat mishap
Linda O’Leary, the wife of one of Canada’s most famous and flamboyant businessmen, could be facing more than a year in jail after being charged for her alleged role in a boat crash that killed two people.
The Ontario Provincial Police announced the charges Tuesday, exactly one month after two boats collided at night on Lake Joseph, one of Canada’s most exclusive vacation locales.
Linda O’Leary, 56, has been charged with careless operation of a vessel under the Canada Shipping Act. Though the charge carries a maximum penalty of 18 months imprisonment or a $1 million fine, O’Leary’s lawyer stressed Tuesday that it is not a criminal charge.
“We find it certainly unusual that, where a cautious and experienced boater came in collision with an unlit craft on the dark and moonless night, that charges would flow from that,” said Brian Greenspan. “That’s not a criminal offence, period,” said Greenspan, one of Canada’s most-prominent criminal defence lawyers, “and it shouldn’t be characterized as criminal in any way.”
The charge stems from an incident in late August, when O’Leary was driving a boat on Lake Joseph in the Township of Muskoka Lakes. Kevin O’Leary was a passenger, he said in a press release following the incident. Just before midnight, the boat collided with another vessel. The two casualties were Gary Poltash, a 64-year-old man from Florida, and Suzana Brito, a 48-year-old woman from Uxbridge, Ont. Three other people were taken to hospital and released, the OPP said.
The driver of the other boat, Richard Ruh, 57, was charged with failure to exhibit a navigation light while underway. That charge, which also falls under the Canada Shipping Act, carries a set fine. Ruh received his provincial offence notice last week, said Carolle Dionne, staff sergeant for the OPP.
Linda O’Leary has never been a public figure on the same scale as her husband, whose profile rose with his appearance as a venture capitalist on the reality TV show Dragons’ Den on CBC and later the American version, Shark Tank. But she’s also never been shy about showing off the lifestyle his business success has afforded her family. On Twitter and on her now deleted Instagram account, Linda O’Leary chronicled a lavish life in travel and riches — a villa in Rome, a fashion show in St. Barth’s, sunrise in St. Tropez.
The O’Learys have been summering on Lake Joseph, where the collision occurred, for at least 15 years. The family’s home there has been written up several times for its opulence, including once in The New York Times.
Though Richard Ruh is American and Linda O’Leary Canadian, his ties to Muskoka actually run much deeper than hers. The O’Learys bought their 14-acre waterfront property on Lake Joseph in 1994, according to a 2010 profile in the National Post. They built their 9,000 square-foot, 10-bedroom, 11-bathroom cottage on the property a decade later. The Ruh family, based in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, N.Y., has been travelling to the same lake since 1967, according to a long profile of the family published in Muskoka Life magazine earlier this year.
A family physician and father of four, Ruh once told a local newspaper that parenthood was what he was “born to do.”
Though he is American, if Ruh pleads guilty, he would still be required to pay the fine, said Nainesh Kotak, a personal injury lawyer in Toronto.
Kotak said the OPP regularly lays charges that are not criminal. Even in fatal car collisions, drivers at fault will be charged based on their conduct rather than the impact, he said. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to be charged criminally just because the result is so extreme.”
For his part, Greenspan said he is still waiting to receive disclosure to better understand the basis of the charges. When asked if Linda O’Leary had a Pleasure Craft Operator Card, as issued by Transport Canada, he replied, “I can assure you she has been an experienced and very, very experienced boater for many, many years who follows the safety regulations and all the requirements of boating to the letter of the law.” Linda O’Leary is scheduled to appear in a provincial offence court in Parry Sound on Oct. 29.