Hours of behind-the-scenes video shot by a whistleblower show former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard, who is alleged to have abused women and girls for decades, screaming at his employees and approaching a 16-year-old girl at the London Olympics.
Nygard is in a Winnipeg court today, arguing to be released on bail from jail, where he has been held since his arrest last month.
Stephen Feralio was hired as Nygard’s personal videographer in 2011. He spent the next three years documenting Nygard.
“When I first was hired, Nygard told me that the reason why Jesus is so popular is because he had a good PR team. My job was to film literally everything,” Feralio told CBC News in an interview.
Feralio, who was based in Los Angeles when he worked for Nygard, came forward and shared the video with CBC as part of an investigation into Nygard by The Fifth Estate and the podcast, Evil By Design.
“If I don’t expose him, he’s going to get away with all the things that he’s been doing,” Feralio said.
Feralio reviews video he filmed of Nygard as his personal videographer. (Stephen Feralio)
Nygard was arrested in Winnipeg in December on an extradition warrant. U.S. authorities accuse him of racketeering, sex trafficking and sexual assault involving “dozens” of victims.
More than 80 women accuse Nygard of rape or sexual assault going back four decades. Fifty-seven are part of a separate class-action lawsuit launched in New York in February 2020.
Nygard denies the charges against him and says they are all lies as part of a conspiracy meant to destroy his reputation spearheaded by his former neighbour in the Bahamas, billionaire Louis Bacon.
Several videos shared with CBC document what Nygard called pamper parties. Every Sunday for years, Nygard would host parties in the Bahamas or Los Angeles. Young women and girls were invited for what Nygard said was a day involving fun on the beach, food and dancing.
According to the U.S. indictment, Nygard recruited victims at pamper parties.
Feralio was hired as Nygard’s personal videographer in 2011 and spent three years documenting Nygard’s life. (Submitted by Stephen Feralio)
“Nygard would just come down and choose a girl. Usually they would be drunk,” said Feralio, who filmed several of his pamper parties.
“He would be grabbing them, dancing with them. And then at the end of the night, he would give me the signal and that meant stop filming,” he said. “And he would go upstairs to the room sometimes with two or three or more girls.”
Feralio also travelled with Nygard, documenting life on his private Boeing 727 airplane.
“So life on the plane, there’s food and then there’s poker and then there is karaoke and then there is maybe a movie. And then there’s drinking and dancing. And, you know, Nygard had a bed on the plane, and so he would have sex with the girls up in the front of the plane.”
One day in 2012, Feralio said, he filmed a party on the plane that included a 17-year-old dancing along with several other young women.
“[They are] all dancing on the stripper pole on the plane,” said Feralio, pointing to the teen.
WATCH | Videographer shows a party on Nygard’s plane:
Videographer Stephen Feralio travelled with Nygard, documenting life on his private 727 airplane. One day in 2012, Feralio said, he filmed a party on the plane that included a 17-year-old girl dancing and drinking alcohol along with several other young women. 0:23
Feralio said the 17-year-old travelled with Nygard, becoming one of the women he referred to as his “girlfriends.”
According to the U.S. indictment, women and girls known as Nygard’s “girlfriends” were often victims of his alleged assaults.
“Nygard maintained control over his victims through threats, promises to grant or withhold modelling opportunities and other career advancement, granting and withholding financial support and other coercive means,” the indictment said.
Feralio documented many interactions between Nygard and his “girlfriends.”
“They were around when Nygard needed sex,” said Feralio.
“They would accompany Nygard to dinner. They would be parading in during the meetings. Nygard would call them the girlfriends.”
Entering a hotel suite
Another video shows Nygard and several women walking into a hotel suite in Las Vegas.
“[Nygard] motions to the room and he says: ‘This is where we sin. This is our sin bin,’ ” Feralio said.
At one point, Nygard appears to lose track of how many women are travelling with him.
“You’re all going to stay in this suite, it’s so big, so we’ve got…. You guys are with me. How many girls we got? Is there one missing?”
“No, no, you two in that room, we three here,” one woman replies.
“Oh, I thought we had one extra,” Nygard says.
WATCH | Videographer shows how Nygard lost track of how many women were travelling with him:
A video captured by Stephen Feralio shows Nygard and several women walking into a hotel suite in Las Vegas. At one point, Nygard appears to lose track of how many women are travelling with him. 0:32
The U.S. indictment alleges Nygard had an elaborate and extensive system for recruiting young women and girls to victimize.
“To recruit victims, Peter Nygard … and others known and unknown used a network of trusted associates, ‘girlfriends’ and Nygard Group employees.”
One video shows Nygard meeting a young woman.
Feralio was filming when Nygard travelled to the Summer Olympics in London in 2012. In the video, Nygard and one of the women travelling with him can be seen approaching a 16-year-old athlete.
“Just to be here at the Olympics and to be running, good for you, and at 16 yet,” Nygard can be heard saying to the teenage girl, while he examines her Olympic credentials.
“Get her … number,” he says to the woman he is travelling with. “Her cell number or something. Two phone numbers. I don’t want to lose her now that I’ve found her.”
WATCH | Videographer shows how Nygard would approach young women:
Stephen Feralio was filming when Nygard travelled to the Olympics in London in 2012. In the video, Nygard and one of the women travelling with him can be seen approaching a 16-year-old athlete. Feralio said the video shows what he describes as a typical effort to recruit a young woman for Nygard. 0:34
Feralio said the video shows what he describes as a typical effort to recruit a young woman for Nygard.
“Part of what educates this … in the past, girls have said, ‘I found somebody else so that I don’t have to sleep with Nygard tonight.'”
Other videos show Nygard yelling at his employees.
“Some of these [videos] are kind of more difficult for me to watch,” Feralio said.
One video shows Nygard screaming at someone who appears to be a male employee or contractor in the Bahamas. Another shows Nygard yelling at his staff in an airport. Nygard can be heard saying: “You’re not following my law.”
WATCH | Videographer shows how Nygard would yell at employees:
Stephen Feralio’s videos show Nygard screaming at someone who appears to be a male employee or contractor in the Bahamas. Another shows Nygard yelling at his staff in an airport. Nygard can be heard saying: ‘You’re not following my law.’ 0:23
“He screamed at us and he screamed at me a lot. It was a very stressful environment,” Feralio said.
Feralio’s videos became a hotly contested element in a bitter legal dispute between Nygard and Bacon.
The two neighbours had been feuding for years about the expansion of Nygard’s beaches. Nygard was dredging up the seabed that sits adjacent to both of their properties, causing environmental damage.
Feralio first approached people connected to Bacon in 2014, offering hundreds of hours of behind-the-scenes video in exchange for legal protection from lawsuits and living expenses.
Lawyers for Bacon filed a court action requesting access to the videos filmed by Feralio, hoping to use them as evidence in several lawsuits in the Bahamas.
Over the next five years, Nygard fought in court to keep Feralio’s video secret, arguing Feralio was his employee and Nygard owned the videos, not Feralio.
In 2019, Nygard abandoned that effort and now Feralio is sharing many of the videos with CBC.
“Nobody else in my world of Nygard has this evidence,” Feralio said.
Nygard has been in jail in Winnipeg since his arrest on Dec. 14. His lawyers argue he should be released on bail pending an extradition hearing because of his age and poor health and the risk of contracting COVID-19.
Watch full episodes of The Fifth Estate on CBC Gem, the CBC’s streaming service.
VANCOUVER – A re-elected NDP government would scrap British Columbia’s long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters” if the federal government dropped its requirement for the law, Premier David Eby said Thursday.
At a campaign event in Vancouver, Eby said his government would end the provincial carbon tax on consumers if the federal “legal backstop” requiring the province to keep the tax in place is removed.
“Two things will happen. One is we’ll remove the carbon tax for everyday British Columbians, for the farmers, for the truckers, for the average British Columbian,” Eby said Thursday.
“The second thing is we believe that climate change is a real and present threat, unlike (B.C. Conservative Leader) John Rustad who thinks it’s a hoax. “And so we will continue to ensure … that the big polluters are paying their fair share.”
He said the federal Liberal government’s approach to the carbon tax has “badly damaged” what was a political consensus on the issue in the province, which goes to the polls on Oct. 19.
Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has meanwhile vowed to end the carbon tax if elected.
British Columbia’s provincial carbon tax has been in place since 2008, when it became the first jurisdiction in North America to put a price on carbon emissions, but Eby said the carbon tax issue has since been “politicized,” something he called “incredibly unfortunate.”
“It’s had an impact right across the country in terms of peoples’ support for this kind of approach,” he said.
“Combine that with rising interest rates, high global inflation, and we need to make sure that we’re supporting British Columbians however we can right now.”
He said the federal government’s “unsustainable hikes” on how much people have to pay, coupled with differential treatment given to certain products and provinces had squeezed consumers at a time they need “support.”
“I believed and still believe that a price on carbon is and can be an effective tool, which is why I think that big polluters need to pay in this province,” he said.
Eby was flanked by Manitoba NDP Premier Wab Kinew at the campaign event.
Kinew said climate change needed action but the politicization of the issue had alienated blue-collar workers and a “generation of Canadians,” something he said the NDP couldn’t afford.
He said there had to be “flexibility” in the face of the affordability crisis.
“Of course, we’re going to be doing all those things to reduce emissions and to incentivize a low carbon economy, but we’ve got to keep a critical mass of Canadians on side with solving the climate crisis,” Kinew said.
B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad said Eby’s “reversal” on the tax was a “desperate attempt to salvage his sinking political ship.”
“Eby has spent years championing this disastrous tax that punishes families and businesses. Now, faced with growing opposition, he’s pretending to care. It’s nothing more than a cynical ploy,” Rustad said in a written statement sent minutes after Eby’s comments.
BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau, called Eby’s pledge a “carbon tax flip-flop.”
“It is obvious that the B.C. NDP is making up climate policy on the fly. He now says big emitters should pay for climate change — but his government is giving billions in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry to increase fracking,” she said in a written statement.
“B.C. deserves a clear, coherent plan for climate change and the clean economy, not confusing contradictions.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government says it is taking steps to ensure tree fruit growers are compensated for past harvests after the closure of a co-operative that had served farmers for almost 90 years.
It says the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC is “redirecting” about $4 million in provincial funding that will be used to ensure co-op members receive money they are owed.
The province says the foundation will pay growers in the coming weeks and then recoup the funds at the end of the court process involving the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative that filed for creditor protection last month.
In July, the co-op, which processed, stored, packaged and sold fruit for 230 member farms, announced it was shutting down after 88 years of operation.
It says it has more than $58 million in liabilities.
The agriculture ministry says it is has also provided $100,000 to the BC Fruit Growers Association that will go toward food-safety certification that was previously done by the co-op.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Jesse Marsch issued Canada’s men’s soccer squad a challenge — get physical.
The edict came after the Canadians surprised many at this summer’s Copa America tournament, making it through to the semifinals. As his players departed for their professional clubs, the head coach wanted them thinking about continued growth.
“I challenged them to be more physically present in the matches that they played in,” Marsch said. “I’ve tried to encourage all the players to sprint more, to win more duels, to win more balls, to be more dynamic in matches.”
When Canada reconvened for a pair of friendlies last week, the coach saw some players had already heeded his call, including Vancouver Whitecaps product Ali Ahmed.
The 23-year-old midfielder started in both Canada’s 2-1 victory over the United States on Saturday and Tuesday’s 0-0 draw against Mexico.
“I’m really happy for him,” Marsch said. “I think he’s still young and still has a lot of room and potential to continue to grow.”
Playing under Marsch — who took over as head coach in May — has been a boon for the young athlete, currently in his second full season with Major League Soccer’s Whitecaps.
“Jesse has a very clear way of playing,” Ahmed said. “And I think the way we’ve been training and the way we’ve been growing as a group, it’s been helpful for me.”
The reward of getting minutes for a national team can spur a player’s growth, including Ahmed, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini.
“Of course that fuels him inside to say ‘Hey, I want to be a better player. I want to get to that stage,'” said Sartini.
Vancouver had six players — including Ahmed — away on international duty during its 0-0 draw against Dallas FC on Saturday. The absences are a good problem to have, Sartini said.
“Because we have players that are close to the national team, we have a lot of players that development is faster, better, bigger than it would have been if they hadn’t been called,” he said.
Born in Toronto, Ahmed came up through the Whitecaps’ academy system and played for Vancouver’s MLS Next Pro side before cementing his spot on the first team in 2023. He put up two goals and two assists across 22 regular-season games, and added another goal and another helper in 19 appearances this year.
Taking the next step will require the five-foot-11, 154-pound Ahmed to push himself physically, Marsch said.
“Tactically, he’s technically gifted,” the coach said. “I’ve told him he’s got to get in the gym more.
“There’s a lot of these little things where too many guys, they still look like kids and we need to help them look like men and play like men. And that’s what the high standards of the game are about.”
Marsch has quickly adjusted to recalibrating standards in his short time with Team Canada. Since taking over the squad in May, the coach said he’s learned the players are smarter and more capable than he originally thought, which forces the coach to constantly recalibrate his standards.
“That’s my job right now, to keep raising the level of the demands,” he said.
The way 40th-ranked Canada is viewed on the international stage is evolving, too.
“I think we’re changing the perception on the way we’re playing now,” he said. “I think beating the U.S. — it would have been nice to beat Mexico as well — the way we did, the way that we performed at Copa, I think teams are starting to look at us differently.
“Right now, I think we’re focused on ourselves. We’re definitely trying to be the best in CONCACAF and we have higher goals as well.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
