The lawyer for former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard argued in a Winnipeg court Friday that a review by Saskatchewan prosecutors of a Manitoba Prosecution Service decision not to charge her client with sexual assault was done because of political pressure.
Gerri Wiebe, Nygard’s lawyer, is asking for a stay of proceedings on charges of sexual assault and unlawful confinement that Nygard faces in Winnipeg.
Wiebe told provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie that former Manitoba attorney general Kelvin Goertzen felt political pressure to seek a second opinion and ordered the review after getting a briefing on the matter.
“This was literally intervention from the top,” Wiebe said. “A dictate from Mount Olympus.”
Nygard was first arrested in Winnipeg in December 2020 under the Extradition Act, after he was charged with nine counts in New York, including sex trafficking and racketeering.
At the time, the Winnipeg Police Service had been investigating Nygard for months. The files of eight women who alleged they’d been assaulted by Nygard were sent to Manitoba’s Justice Ministry for review in December 2020.
Prosecutors decided not to lay charges against Nygard in Manitoba in 2021 and, as is customary, there were no details provided on how that decision was reached.
Goertzen announced in late 2022 that Manitoba was going to take a second look at the decision, seeking the advice of Saskatchewan’s prosecution services.
That review resulted in Nygard being charged with sexual assault and unlawful confinement in Winnipeg in 2023.
Nygard’s lawyer filed an abuse of process motion, arguing public protests, intense media pressure and questions from other politicians in the Manitoba Legislature put pressure on Goertzen to act.
She argued it undermined the integrity of the justice system.
“We’re saying he was influenced by outside politics,” Wiebe told the court.
Wiebe told the judge this is the first time in Manitoba history such a decision has been made and questioned why Nygard was singled out among other accused whom the Crown hasn’t recommended charges against.
The chronology suggests significant political pressure, Wiebe argued.
“Sixteen months after the decision not to prosecute this case, in the face of direct questioning in the legislative assembly, the attorney general sought a second opinion,” Wiebe said in court.
CBC News has reached out to the Manitoba Progressive Conservative caucus for comment from Goertzen, who is the MLA for Steinbach.
Nygard was sentenced to 11 years in prison in September after he was convicted in Toronto of four counts of sexual assault involving five women who said they were attacked between the late 1980s and the early 2000s.
He is also facing charges in Quebec and the United States. He has denied all allegations against him.
