Peter Nygard wants Winnipeg charges stayed, arguing review was ordered because of political pressure
Former fashion mogul faces charges of sexual assault and unlawful confinement in Manitoba
The lawyer for former fashion mogul Peter Nygard argued in a Winnipeg court Friday her client's Winnipeg charges of sexual assault and unlawful confinement should be stayed because they were the result of "unprecedented" political pressure.
"This was literally intervention from the top," Gerri Wiebe, Nygard's lawyer, argued in court on Friday, during a hearing on a motion to stay the charges. "A dictate from Mount Olympus."
In 2022, while he was attorney general and justice minister in the previous Progressive Conservative government, Kelvin Goertzen asked Saskatchewan prosecutors to review a decision by the Manitoba Prosecution Service not to charge Nygard.
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, but Manitoba prosecutors decided in 2021 not to lay charges.
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.
"A thorough review of the evidence by multiple senior Manitoba Crown attorneys has resulted in a determination of no reasonable likelihood of conviction," Wiebe told the court Friday.
"Yet the justice minister is not only seeking the review, he's announcing it publicly."
That review resulted in Nygard being charged in 2023 with sexual assault and unlawful confinement in Winnipeg, in connection with offences allegedly committed in November 1993 involving a then 20-year-old woman.
'Appears to be no precedent for it': lawyer
Wiebe told provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie the review was ordered because of political pressure.
"The decision of the attorney general to seek a second opinion on a decision to charge, and in particular on the decision to charge Mr. Nygard in these circumstances, was unprecedented," Wiebe argued Friday.
"There appears to be no precedent for it in the memory of [the] Manitoba Prosecution Service."
Goertzen himself referred to it as unprecedented in a social media post, Wiebe told the court.
She's now asking for a stay of proceedings on the charges of sexual assault and unlawful confinement that Nygard faces in Winnipeg.
Wiebe 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.
She 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 cases where the Crown didn't recommend charges.
She pointed to comments Goertzen made in the media about the decision not to prosecute.
A December 2022 Canadian Press story quoted Goertzen as saying, "it's bothered me and I've lost sleep over it."
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.
The hearing is expected to continue Monday, when the judge will hear arguments from the Crown.
Goertzen, who is the MLA for Steinbach with the now Opposition Progressive Conservatives, said in an emailed statement he stands by the decision but wouldn't comment any further as the case is before the courts.
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.
With files from Josh Crabb