Winnipeg judge stays charges against Peter Nygard

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

Charges of sex assault and unlawful confinement were stayed Wednesday against former fashion mogul Peter Nygard due to missing evidence.

A Winnipeg judge, ruling on an application from Nygard’s lawyer, said reports of police interviews with the complainant in 1993 were later destroyed without justifiable reasons.

Justice Mary Kate Harvie said the result was so serious it violates Nygard’s Charter right to a fair trial and therefore merits a stay of proceedings.

“The applicant’s right to a fair trial has been substantially prejudiced and will be further aggravated by allowing the trial to proceed,” Harvie said.

The judge said she found the rules and procedures around retaining police reports fuzzy and inexcusable in the era of electronic and computer technology.

She rejected the Crown’s argument that the two interview documents are relevant but their loss doesn’t reach the level of “unacceptable negligence.”

The judge also said she agreed with Nygard’s lawyer, Gerri Wiebe, that as more historical cases come to light, particularly sex assaults, police have an equal responsibility to retain records if those accused must mount a defence.

Nygard was charged in 2023 after police said a woman came forward with allegations she was sexually assaulted at a warehouse in Manitoba’s capital 30 years earlier.

She spoke with Winnipeg police and Vancouver RCMP 1993, but charges were not laid.

In 2020, the woman she gave a video statement to Winnipeg police. Prosecutors decided not to lay charges.

Former attorney general Kelvin Goertzen forwarded the investigation to Saskatchewan Justice in 2022 for an independent review. Nygard was arrested the following year.

Nygard, 84, founded his now-defunct global women’s clothing company in Winnipeg in 1967.

He still faces a trial on sex charges in Quebec and extradition to the United States on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.

Last year, he was sentenced to 11 years for sex offences in Toronto.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2025.

The Canadian Press