A Crown prosecutor has argued that missing police records from more than 30 years ago should not stop the sexual assault case against former fashion mogul Peter Nygard.
The defence team claims that the lost evidence will make it impossible for their client to receive a fair trial. But the prosecutor insists that the trial can still move forward without unfairness.
Peter Nygard, now 84 years old, faces charges of unlawful confinement and sexual assault. The alleged incident took place in 1993 at his warehouse apartment in Winnipeg.
Although the accusation is decades old, formal charges were not laid until 2020, when police reopened the investigation. The complainant, whose identity is protected, first spoke to police in 1993, but the case never moved forward at that time.
When the case was revisited in 2020, investigators contacted the Winnipeg police officer and the RCMP officer who spoke with the woman in 1993. Both officers remembered talking with her but could not find their old notes or files.
The RCMP officer recalled that the woman had felt unwell at a social event and thought she might have been drugged. She also believed she was being watched in a washroom. However, he admitted he did not take a formal statement and could not remember if she reported a crime directly.
Whatever documents may have existed are believed to have been destroyed under police file-clearing rules.
Nygard’s lawyer, Gerri Wiebe, strongly criticized the loss of these records. She argued that police had a duty to keep such files because they involved a possible sexual assault.
Wiebe told the court that without the old records, she cannot properly cross-examine the complainant. This, she said, will deny her client the right to a fair trial.
She described the destruction of the files as “unacceptable negligence.”
Judge Mary Kate Harvie, who is overseeing the case, noted that survivors of sexual assault often take years before coming forward with a full account.
She questioned whether police policies in the 1990s about file retention were reasonable. If they were not, the policy itself could be considered negligent.
The judge did not give an immediate ruling but said she will take several weeks to decide whether the trial should proceed.
Crown prosecutor Rob Parker pushed back against the defence. He said that police cannot be expected to keep every document forever “on the off chance” that it may become important decades later.
Parker argued that the missing notes are not serious enough to block cross-examination. He said Nygard’s lawyer can still challenge the credibility of the complainant during trial.
To stop the trial, the judge would have to find that the loss of the evidence caused so much damage that a fair trial is impossible. Parker said that standard is far too high in this case.
Parker warned that accepting the defence’s argument would force police across Canada to keep nearly every file “potentially forever.” That, he said, would set an unrealistic burden on law enforcement.
He also dismissed the idea that a “hunch” from the RCMP officer in 1993 was enough to trigger a permanent duty to preserve the file.
The trial is currently set for the week of December 8. Before that happens, the judge must decide whether the case can proceed or if it should be stopped due to the lost files.
Peter Nygard is already serving an 11-year sentence in Ontario after being convicted of sexual assault for crimes that took place between the 1980s and the mid-2000s. He is appealing that conviction.
He also faces charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement in Quebec for incidents that allegedly happened between 1997 and 1998.
This case highlights the challenges of prosecuting crimes that happened decades ago. Survivors of sexual assault often wait years, sometimes decades, before speaking publicly or reporting to police.
That delay can mean records, notes, and files are no longer available. Defence lawyers argue this makes trials unfair, while prosecutors say justice must still be served even if some evidence is lost.
Judge Harvie will take time to review arguments from both sides before deciding whether the trial will move forward in December.
For now, Nygard remains behind bars in Ontario, waiting to see if this case in Manitoba will go ahead.
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