{"id":32236,"date":"2026-05-05T03:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T03:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/32236\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T03:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T03:30:15","slug":"ontarios-top-court-hears-peter-nygards-appeal-of-sex-assault-convictions-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/32236\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario\u2019s top court hears Peter Nygard\u2019s appeal of sex assault convictions, sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Peter Nygard arrives to a courthouse in Toronto, in October, 2023.Cole Burston\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Ontario Court of Appeal heard Peter Nygard\u2019s appeal of his sexual assault convictions and prison sentence on Monday, with his lawyers arguing the Toronto trial judge made errors including admitting the testimony of an expert on trauma.<\/p>\n

The former fashion mogul was convicted of four counts of sexual assault in 2023 and sentenced to 11 years behind bars after multiple women came forward with allegations dating from the 1980s until the mid-2000s.<\/p>\n

His prison sentence amounts to a little less than seven years, after credit for the time he already spent in custody before and during trial.<\/p>\n

Nygard\u2019s lawyers filed a notice of appeal in 2024, arguing his sentence was \u201cexcessive\u201d and that the judge erred in admitting the testimony of clinical psychologist Lori Haskell on the effects of trauma.<\/p>\n

Peter Nygard sues authorities for allegedly abusing process with Manitoba charges<\/a><\/p>\n

The lawyers cited the case of Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard, whose appeal of his 2022 sexual assault conviction also took issue with Haskell\u2019s testimony in his trial, in part due to risk of jury misuse, but Hoggard\u2019s conviction was still upheld after a panel found there had been no miscarriage of justice.<\/p>\n

The Crown argued in written submissions to the Appeal Court that the admission of Haskell\u2019s testimony at Nygard\u2019s trial was a \u201charmless error\u201d that did not mislead the jury or cause a miscarriage of justice.<\/p>\n

Nygard, 84, was denied bail in 2024, and the judge wrote in that decision that in her view, the admission of Haskell\u2019s testimony is the only \u201clegally plausible\u201d argument raised in his appeal.<\/p>\n

Nygard\u2019s lawyers also argued that the trial judge erred in allowing the jury to consider the evidence of one complainant to help decide whether the Crown had proven its case with respect to other complainants.<\/p>\n

Nygard is asking that his conviction be overturned, or set aside and a new trial be ordered. He\u2019s also requesting a reduced sentence and any other relief the Appeal Court deems appropriate.<\/p>\n

Nygard founded his now-defunct global women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Nygard also faced criminal charges in Manitoba, but those charges were stayed in October after a judge ruled records of police interviews with the complainant in 1993 were destroyed without justifiable reasons, violating his Charter right to a fair trial. <\/p>\n

Prosecutors had decided not to lay charges in 2020, but the Manitoba government later forwarded the investigation to Saskatchewan Justice for an independent review and Nygard was arrested.<\/p>\n

Last month, Nygard\u2019s lawyers filed a lawsuit against the Manitoba and Saskatchewan governments, Winnipeg police and others, alleging defamation and abuse of process surrounding those charges. The claims have not been tested in court.<\/p>\n

Nygard faces a trial on sex charges in Quebec as well as extradition to the United States on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He has denied all allegations against him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Peter Nygard arrives to a courthouse in Toronto, in October, 2023.Cole Burston\/The Canadian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-32236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-travel","51":"tag-trudeau","52":"tag-us-news","53":"tag-world-news","54":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}