The lawyer of the Canadian fashion magnate Peter Nygard argued in a Winnipeg court on Friday that a review of Saskatchewan prosecutors of a decision of the Manitoba Prosecutor’s Office of not accusing his client with sexual aggression was carried out due to political pressure.
Gerri Wiebe, a Nygard lawyer, is asking for a suspension of procedures for positions of sexual assault and illegal confinement faced by Nygard in Winnipeg.
Wiebe told the Judge of the Provincial Court Mary Kate Harvie that the former Attorney General of Manitoba, Kelvin Goertzen, felt political pressure to seek a second opinion and ordered the review after receiving an informative session on the matter.
“This was literally an intervention from the top,” said Wiebe. “A dictation of Mount Olympus.”
Nygard was first arrested in Winnipeg in December 2020 under the extradition law, after he was accused of nine positions in New York, including sexual trafficking and success.
At that time, Winnipeg’s police service had been investigating Nygard for months. The archives of eight women who alleged that they had been attacked by Nygard were sent to the Ministry of Justice of Manitoba for review in December 2020.
Prosecutors decided not to present charges against Nygard in Manitoba in 2021 and, as usual, no details were provided on how that decision was made.
Goertzen announced at the end of 2022 that Manitoba was going to take a second glance to the decision, seeking the Council of Saskatchewan’s prosecution services.
That review turned out that Nygard was accused of sexual aggression and illegal confinement in Winnipeg in 2023.
Nygard’s lawyer presented an abuse of processes motion, arguing public protests, intense pressure from the media and questions of other politicians in the Manitoba Legislature pressed Goertzen to act.
She argued that she undermined the integrity of the justice system.
“We are saying that it was influenced by external policy,” Wiebe told the Court.
Wiebe told the judge that this is the first time in the history of Manitoba, such a decision has been made and questioned why Nygard was pointed out among other accused against whom the crown has not recommended charges.
Chronology suggests significant political pressure, Wiebe argued.
“Sixteen months after the decision not to process this case, given the direct interrogation in the Legislative Assembly, the Attorney General sought a second opinion,” Wiebe said in the Court.
CBC News has communicated with Manitoba’s progressive conservative caucus to comment from Goertzen, who is the MLA for Steinbach.
Nygard was sentenced to 11 years in prison in September after he was sentenced in Toronto for four positions of sexual assault that involved five women who said they were attacked between the late eighties and early 2000s.
It also faces charges in Quebec and the United States. He has denied all the accusations against him.
