Disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard has filed a lawsuit against a long list of defendants — including a woman who accused him of sexual assault and Manitoba’s former attorney general — alleging he was defamed and suffered as a result of what he describes as an abuse of process surrounding his prosecution in Winnipeg.
Nygard filed the statement of claim in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench on Friday, naming as defendants the City of Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Police Service, police Chief Gene Bowers, the Province of Manitoba and former Manitoba attorney general Kelvin Goertzen.
The lawsuit also names as defendants the Province of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Crown attorney Rob Parker, Toronto therapist and advocate Shannon Moroney, and April Telek, who alleged Nygard sexually assaulted her at his Winnipeg warehouse in 1993.
The court filing comes after a judge in October stayed the charges in Nygard’s Winnipeg prosecution involving Telek, finding his right to a fair trial was breached by police failing to retain records related to her allegations.
Court heard during those proceedings that Telek spoke about the alleged incident with police officers, including North Vancouver RCMP and Winnipeg police, but any notes or reports related to those interactions were presumed to have been purged from police systems.
While Manitoba prosecutors declined to lay charges in the case, Nygard was eventually charged after then-attorney general Goertzen ordered the file be sent to prosecutors in Saskatchewan for review. The judge in the case involving Telek’s allegations later determined that decision to have the file reviewed again amounted to a serious abuse of process.
The lawsuit filed last week says the fact Nygard, formerly the head of a multimillion-dollar clothing empire based in Winnipeg, was charged in Toronto in 2021 and not in Winnipeg at that time “was widely publicized and criticized,” and the review by Saskatchewan prosecutors “was initiated following immense pressure.”
It alleges that pressure came both from “media reports regarding how Manitoba officials had originally handled complaints from eight women decades prior,” and from Moroney, who’s advocated for women who have made allegations against Nygard.
“Moroney actively criticized the inaction of Canadian authorities, arguing that the lack of charges in Canada — even after numerous women provided statements — was ‘appalling’ and constituted ‘re-victimization,'” the lawsuit says, alleging Moroney and Telek made “various defamatory statements” about Nygard.
The lawsuit references news stories about Nygard from a variety of outlets, including CBC.
The statement of claim argues the review by Saskatchewan prosecutors shouldn’t have happened, and accuses the Manitoba and Saskatchewan governments, Goertzen, Parker, Telek and Moroney of participating in an abuse of process.
The defendants that CBC was able to reach on Wednesday declined to comment on the lawsuit. No statements of defence have been filed.
The lawsuit also says police contacted Nygard’s criminal counsel last month to advise they’d found the officers’ notebooks and the statements relating to Telek which were previously thought to have been lost.
“It is the assertion of the plaintiff that if the Saskatchewan crown attorney had been provided with the Telek statements by the Winnipeg Police Service and reviewed the Telek statements, he would not have authorized charges against the plaintiff,” the statement of claim says.
“The plaintiff states that the Telek statements contradict April Telek’s more recent statements alleging wrongdoing and therefore, charges would not have been authorized.”
The lawsuit also accuses the officers who initially looked for those statements of negligent conduct, saying their actions “fell below the minimum standard required of police officers that investigate matters that could lead to a criminal charge of sexual assault and unlawful confinement.”
As a result, it says Nygard “incurred general damages in the form of pain and suffering and mental anguish,” and says the alleged defamatory statements made by Moroney caused damages “in the form of injury to his reputation.”
The lawsuit says it’s seeking general and special damages, in an amount “to be proven at trial.”
Nygard is serving an 11-year prison sentence after he was found guilty in an Ontario court of four counts of sexual assault for offences from the 1980s to mid-2000s. He is appealing that conviction and sentence.
He also faces charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement related to allegations of events that took place in 1997 and 1998 in Montreal. Both Nygard’s Ontario appeal and his Montreal trial are scheduled to be heard later this year.
U.S. authorities have also sought his extradition on a nine-count indictment filed in New York, alleging he was involved in illegal activity for the purpose of sexually abusing and trafficking women and underage girls.
Nygard has denied all the allegations against him.
In November 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada announced it would not hear a request by Nygard for a judicial review of the order to extradite him to the U.S. In 2022, then federal justice minister David Lametti ruled that Nygard could be extradited once his legal cases in Canada are settled.
