Former fashion tycoon, disgraced Peter Nygard faces two more charges of sexual assault with two new whistleblowers in Toronto.
The nature of the charges and the dates or locations of the alleged offenses were not provided during a brief court hearing on Wednesday.
In an email Thursday, Toronto police said only the department’s human trafficking control team charged Nygard on June 15 with two counts of sexual assault.
Nygard, 80, is now charged with 11 counts of sexual assault and three counts of forced confinement in Toronto in connection with allegations in the late 1980s and mid-2000s.
He has also been charged with sexual assault and forced confinement in Quebec, and is scheduled to return to a Montreal courtroom on July 8.
In addition, Nygard faces extradition to the United States on sex-related charges.
He was not present at Wednesday’s court hearing in Toronto. Crown Attorney Neville Golwalla said he refused to leave his cell at the South Toronto Detention Center to go to the video conference room.
The Justice of the Peace of the Ontario Court of Justice suggested that Nygard could be ill.
“The words that were used were that he refused to attend his appearance,” said Shannon Moroney, a Toronto trauma therapist who watched the hearing online.
She supports dozens of people, in Toronto and elsewhere, who say Nygard assaulted them. Some of those people saw Wednesday’s hearing with her.
“When some of his charges are forcibly confined and … all charges relate to the way he was forced into the bodies of women and girls, who were then not forced to attend his appearance. causing great anger on the part of the survivors, “Moroney said.
Toronto therapist and clinical social worker Shannon Moroney says she has been helping dozens of people say they were assaulted by Nygard to overcome her trauma. She is calling for a public inquiry into how the Winnipeg Police Service and the Manitoba Justice Department handled the complaints of eight women in Winnipeg. No charges were filed in these cases. (Submitted by Shannon Moroney)
Both Winnipeg-based Nygard’s attorney, Jay Prober, and his Toronto attorney, Brian Greenspan, declined to comment when CBC News contacted them Thursday.
Nygard is scheduled to return to court in Toronto on June 29. In January he was denied bail and ordered not to contact any of his accusers.
Nygard’s strange son, Kai Bickle, also watched Wednesday’s court hearing online. He applauded the new charges and the courage of the women to file their grievances.
Says Nygard, who “was very powerful financially [and] he had many connections “, he started lawsuits” against any individual who spoke … [creating] a culture of silence where people felt isolated and alone ”.
“Now that you’re in jail, you’re realizing you’re not alone if you’re a survivor. And you’re also realizing that you don’t have the power you had before,” said Bickle, who is also a survivor. the executive ambassador of the All for Humanity Alliance, an international group working to end human trafficking and child exploitation.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if more accusations come.”
The identities of all the alleged victims are protected by publication bans.
This sketch shows Peter Nygard appearing at a bail hearing hearing on January 19, 2022, in a video from the South Toronto Detention Center, where he is being held. (Pam Davies)
None of the charges against Nygard have been tried in court and his innocence has been upheld.
He has been arrested since he was arrested in Winnipeg in December 2020 on nine sex charges in New York. He was arrested by Toronto police and transferred there last October.
He will be extradited to the United States to face these charges after the Canadian criminal charges are resolved.
Manitoba Complaints Management Questions
Nygard ran her international fashion empire from Winnipeg, but no charges have been filed in connection with allegations of sexual assault of eight women there.
Moroney and Bickle are calling for a public inquiry into how the Winnipeg Police Service and the provincial Department of Justice handled these complaints, saying the women involved deserve answers.
“An investigation will show that there are no reasonable and acceptable answers to the lack of justice that is being pursued for them,” Moroney said.
“Justice cannot be simply a matter of luck … It cannot exist for the people of one province and not another.”
Survivors feel mixed emotions when new charges are filed, he said. While they support each other and believe the important thing is that Nygard can no longer hurt anyone, it is a reminder that his complaints were not acted upon, he said.
“It’s a complete revictimization and retraumatization for these Manitoba survivors to see … the wheels of justice move for other survivors from other regions,” but not for them, he said.
“There is no trust, no faith. And this has been demonstrated by the lack of charges.”
Kai Bickle, as he is now known, is the separated son of Peter Nygard. He applauds the new charges against the former fashion mogul, saying more and more survivors are finding the courage to take their stories to the police. (Submitted by Kai Nygard)
Bickle also says the Manitoba decision on this case sends the wrong message to survivors.
“He doesn’t tell them to go to the police. He says they have to shut up because nothing will happen,” he said.
Want answers on “what were the mistakes and what can we do to prevent them from happening again in the future?”
In a statement to CBC News, the Winnipeg Police Service said its sex offenses unit “undertook a considerable amount of work to investigate these files.”
Eight cases were filed in Manitoba Justice for consideration, which “refused to authorize criminal charges” against Nygard, according to the written statement.
“We understand the courage required of any survivor of a sexual assault to appear. We recognize and respect the decisions made by law enforcement officials, and sometimes by the survivors themselves, not to proceed with criminal proceedings,” he said.
Manitoba Justice has not yet responded to CBC’s requests for comment.