Prosecutors not appealing judge’s decision to stay sex charges against Peter Nygard

Charges against disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard in Manitoba have been stayed by a judge. CTV’s Danton Unger reports.

WINNIPEG — Crown prosecutors in Saskatchewan have decided not to appeal a Manitoba judge’s decision to stay sexual assault charges against former fashion mogul Peter Nygard.

A spokesperson for Saskatchewan’s Public Prosecutions says after careful review and consideration, the organization determined that an appeal would not be appropriate in the case.

Provincial court judge Mary Kate Harvie ruled last month that the charges were to be stayed after Nygard’s lawyer filed an application citing missing documentation.

Nygard, who still faces sex charges in other jurisdictions, was charged in 2023 after police said a woman came forward with allegations she was sexually assaulted in Winnipeg 30 years earlier.

The investigation was forwarded to Saskatchewan Justice for an independent review after prosecutors in Manitoba decided not to lay charges.

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Saskatchewan prosecutors say the Criminal Code only allows for Crown appeals due to legal errors, and that while the Crown argued for a different result, it did not find any legal errors to base an appeal.

Court heard that the complainant accused Nygard of confining and sexually assaulting her in one of his company’s warehouses in 1993.

At that time she spoke with Winnipeg police and Vancouver RCMP, but indicated she would not press charges.

Notes from the 1993 police interviews are no longer available, and were presumed to have been purged due to the passage of time.

Nygard founded his now-defunct global women’s clothing company in Winnipeg in 1967. He stepped down as chairman after the FBI and police raided his offices in New York in February 2020.

He was sentenced last year to 11 years for sex offences in Toronto. He also faces a trial on sex charges in Quebec, as well as extradition to the United States on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2025.