Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard appeared in a Montreal courtroom remotely on Tuesday for the first of a two-day preliminary hearing on one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement.
Nygard, the founder of a defunct international women’s clothing company, is facing trial for incidents that allegedly took place between Nov. 1, 1997, and Nov. 15, 1998. The alleged victim’s identity and the evidence being presented this week in Quebec court are subject to a publication ban. Quebec prosecutors charged Nygard in March 2022.
A judge has permitted Nygard, 83, to appear remotely from a federal institution in Ontario where he is serving time. The founder of Nygard International was wheeled into a room in a wheelchair, wearing a heavy coat, a ball cap and glasses.
He was sentenced in September 2024 to 11 years in prison after he was found guilty on four counts of sexual assault in Toronto for offences from the 1980s to mid-2000s. During sentencing, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein called Nygard a “sexual predator” and “a Canadian success story gone very wrong.”
Minus time served in pretrial custody, Nygard has about seven years left to serve in Ontario, and is eligible for a parole hearing after two years in prison.
Nygard is also facing sex-related charges in Manitoba, and U.S. authorities have sought his extradition on a nine-count indictment filed in New York, alleging he was involved in illegal activity for the purpose of sexually abusing and trafficking women and underage girls. The charges against Nygard in Manitoba or in the U.S. have not been tested in court.
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In November 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada announced it would not hear a request by Nygard for a judicial review of the order to extradite him to the U.S. In 2022, then-federal justice minister David Lametti ruled that Nygard could be extradited once his legal cases in Canada are settled.
Nygard has denied all the allegations against him, and is appealing his convictions and sentence in Ontario.
