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Tourism operators face heavy debt, even as business roars back
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Peter Nygard accused of raping 10 women in civil class-action lawsuit
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Ten women filed a civil class-action lawsuit on Thursday accusing one of Canada’s wealthiest businessmen and clothing manufacturers, Peter Nygard, of raping them at his seaside mansion in the Bahamas, and operating what they refer to as a “sex trafficking ring.”
The women are seeking damages for the alleged rapes.
Three of the women were 14 years old at the time of the alleged rapes. Three others were 15 years old.
The alleged rapes took place between 2008 and 2015.
The women are not named in the lawsuit “to protect their identities because of the sensitive and highly personal nature of this matter.”
According to the lawsuit, filed in New York, Nygard “recruited, lured, and enticed young, impressionable, and often impoverished children and women, with cash payments and false promises of lucrative modeling opportunities to assault, rape, and sodomize them.”
There are no criminal charges associated with any of the allegations.
Nygard’s lawyer “vigorously” denied the accusations as “completely false [and] without foundation” in a statement Thursday.
“Peter Nygard looks forward to fully exposing this scam, and once and for all clearing his name,” said Jay Prober.
Nygard operates a multi-million dollar clothing empire, based in Winnipeg. According to its website, the privately owned company operates more than 170 stores across North America.
Lawsuit alleges bribery
The lawsuit goes on to accuse Nygard of drugging women by putting “Rohypnol and/or other mind-altering drugs in their drinks.”
It also alleges he “initiated a scheme to purchase police protection and political cover in the Bahamas by making regular payments of tens of thousands of dollars to law enforcement, government officials, regulators, and even to a former Cabinet Minister who became the Prime Minister of the Bahamas.”
It further claims “Nygard also paid people, using Nygard Company money, to intimidate his former ‘girlfriends’ by slashing their tires, committing arson, paying police to threaten to arrest them, and by having them followed.”
Decade-long dispute
“This lawsuit was expected,” said Prober, his lawyer.
Prober says the lawsuit is the latest in a decade-long attempt to destroy his reputation by his former neighbour in the Bahamas, U.S. billionaire and former hedge fund owner Louis Bacon.
Their dispute began as a noise complaint, and has evolved into multiple lawsuits in multiple countries spanning more than 10 years.
Nygard’s most recent legal assault against Bacon was launched in New York in November 2019
It alleges Bacon has hired a team of lawyers and private investigators who are “engaging in a pattern of illicit and illegal conduct designed to improperly influence witnesses to make false statements, file false reports, abuse process, tortiously interfere with business relations and aid and abet the dissemination of false statements … all for the intentional purpose of damaging [Nygard].”
Nygard says allegations in the lawsuit filed Thursday are a response to his November lawsuit against Bacon, saying the complainants were “bought off to make such false claims.”
‘Pamper parties’
According to Thursday’s lawsuit the alleged rapes took place after or during what Nygard has referred to as “pamper parties” at his home in the Bahamas.
His staff were instructed to recruit young women for the weekly parties, the lawsuit claims. When guests checked in, their details would be entered in a database and photos sent to Nygard for review.
“Nygard would then use this information to select his potential victims for the night,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit claims Nygard has a database of more than 7,500 underage girls and women.
The lawsuit also includes details of the alleged assaults against the 10 women who made the allegations.
The allegations include vaginal rape, anal rape, oral sex and requests to urinate or defacate in Nygard’s mouth.
According to the lawsuit, one of the complainants, who was 14 at the time, says the encounter began with Nygard showing her pornography, then Nygard asked her to use a sex toy on him and it ended when he raped her “causing her extrordinary trauma and pain.”
The lawsuit says he paid the complainants thousands of dollars after each of the rapes.
He resorted to tactics of violence, intimidation, bribery, and payoff to attempt to silence the victims and to continue his scheme.-civil class-action lawsuit
“The Nygard Companies fund all of Nygard’s ‘pamper parties’ by transferring cash from the company’s bank account in Canada and routing it through New York,” the lawsuit says.
“[Nygard’s] destruction of innocent lives is immeasurable,” it says.
“When Nygard became aware of the investigation into his sex trafficking ring, he resorted to tactics of violence, intimidation, bribery, and payoffs to attempt to silence the victims and to continue his scheme”
There is a 10-year statute of limitations for cases like this under New York law.
The lawsuit requests it be extended because the complainants “were impeded because of a combination of force, threats of force, shame, embarrassment, fear, political and law enforcement corruption, weak laws that are rarely enforced to protect the victim, and bribery.”
If not some accusers may be barred from the suit. The class-action lawsuit must also be certified by a judge before it can proceed.
Additional lawsuits
Thursday’s allegations follow two additional lawsuits accusing Nygard of sexual assault, filed in Los Angeles in January, that came to light recently
Nygard denies those allegations as well.
One lawsuit is from an unnamed woman who claims Nygard sexually assaulted and falsely imprisoned her while she was a minor. The age of consent in California is 18.
The incidents began, the lawsuit alleges, at Nygard’s home in California in 2012 and continued during a trip to China on his private plane, in a club in New York and and while visiting Florida.
“Nygard committed sexual battery upon the plaintiff by acting with the intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact with intimate parts of the plaintiff’s body,” the lawsuit alleges.
Plaintiff objected to being forced to be involved in procuring women for Defendant Nygard. She told him that she was not a madam and that she did not want to be involved in these activities.– civil class-action lawsuit
“Defendant Nygard intentionally deprived Plaintiff of her freedom of movement by the use of menace, fraud, deceit and/or unreasonable durres, for an appreciable period of time.”
The second lawsuit was filed by a former employee of Nygard, who says she managed a medical cannabis facility for him in Los Angeles.
The woman is named in the lawsuit, but CBC News has decided to withhold her identity because of the nature of the allegations.
She claims in her lawsuit that Nygard touched her sexually without consent on several occasions between 2016 and 2018.
Nygard “caused a harmful or offensive contact with [the woman’s] breasts and/or buttocks and/or groin,” the lawsuit alleges.
On one occasion, the lawsuit says Nygard said, “that her ‘ass’ looked amazing. He said, ‘you know what they say about pregnant women.’ He said ‘they want it more’ while making forward motion with his hips.”
The lawsuit alleges the woman was ordered to invite women to attend parties at Nygard’s home in California, and that he would then choose a few of them to “to stay the night with him.”
“Defendant Nygard paid these women for their ‘services,'” the lawsuit claims.
“Plaintiff objected to being forced to be involved in procuring women for Defendant Nygard. She told him that she was not a madam and that she did not want to be involved in these activities.”
According to the lawsuit, the woman quit in 2018, following the alleged assaults and claims Nygard failed to pay her the salary and benefits he promised. Nygard says lawsuits filed in Los Angeles are also part of Bacon’s campaign to destroy his reputation.
None of the allegations in the lawsuits have been proven in court.
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Published Apr 23, 2024 • 3 minute read
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Canadian tourism operators says the tourism sector hasn’t returned to what it was pre-COVID.
Many businesses report carrying a heavy debt load, with Vancouver-based ecotourism company Maple Leaf Adventures saying it’s carrying it’s heaviest debt load in 38 years.
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Co-owner Maureen Gordon says while she and her competitors are recovering, higher interest rates are putting a damper on the post-COVID rebound.
Tourism Industry Association of Canada C-E-O Beth Potter says while the sector brought in 109-billion dollars in revenue last year, the federal government must help out by bringing in a new low interest loan program.
Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada has said tourism operators have been affected by the warmest winter on record, but will be helped by the federal carbon rebate.
Here’s what else we’re watching …
Trudeau to make announcement in Saskatoon today
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in Saskatoon today, where he will make an announcement highlighting measures focused on youth, education, and health that were contained in last week’s budget.
Joining Trudeau at the announcement in Saskatchewan’s largest city are minister for northern affairs Dan Vandal and Women and Gender Equality and Youth Minister Marci Ien.
Trudeau has faced conflict with the Saskatchewan Party government, whose leader, Premier Scott Moe, has been a vocal and long-standing opponent of the federal carbon levy.
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Moe is one of several premiers who have asked Trudeau to host a meeting to discuss alternatives to the consumer carbon price.
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‘Perfect storm’: Quebec farmer protests continue
Quebec farmers are continuing a series of protests that have brought slow rolling tractors to communities across the province’s agricultural regions.
The president of Quebec’s farmers union Martin Caron says producers are struggling with higher interest rates, growing paperwork and fees on plastic products, like containers of seeds, fertilizer and pesticides.
His organization is asking the current Coalition Avenir Quebec government to ensure farmers can get loans with interest rates of three per cent.
A spokesperson for Quebec’s agriculture minister says farmers can get emergency financial aid through a new program and that the government is consulting with the farmers union about reducing paperwork.
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Study shows caribou growth at wolves’ expense
New research suggests western Canada’s caribou population is growing.
But the same study also shows the biggest reason for the rebound is the slaughter of hundreds of wolves, a policy which will likely need to continue.
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Thirty-four researchers compared notes on herds in Alberta and British Columbia based on a study in Ecological Applications and found between 1991 and 2023, the caribou population dropped by half.
However, over the last few years the numbers have begun to slowly rise, as it’s estimated there are now more than 1500 caribou than there were had not restoration effort been made.
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Second World War hangar in Edmonton burns in fire
An aircraft hangar built during the Second World War at Edmonton’s former municipal airport has been destroyed by fire.
A spokesman for the City of Edmonton says in an email firefighters were called to Hangar 11 just before 7 p.m. Monday.
The city’s email says 11 fire crews were dispatched to the scene to deal with the heavy smoke and flames and the wooden building later collapsed.
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How a Newfoundland town shaped creepy ‘King Tide’
A new movie shot in Newfoundland showcases a community heavily reliant on a magical child.
“The King Tide” is about an isolated villagers having their lives forever changed after a mysterious infant washes up on their shores, the sole survivor of a devastating boat wreck.
They name the baby Isla, raise and learn she has healing powers promising immunity from injury and illness.
As the years pass, they become reliant on Isla’s abilities, but when her powers start to fade, a panic sets in as the community begins to fracture.
The movie was shot by Newfoundlander Christian Sparkes in Keels, Newfoundland, a former bustling fishing community which he says he’s been looking to film in for years, but couldn’t until recently due to the cost.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2024.
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We're still stockpiling reusable bags. Big grocers have adopted solutions, but experts have concerns – CBC News
Canada’s plastic bag ban has had an unintended consequence: a proliferation of reusable bags piling up in basements, closets and, eventually, landfills.
“They’re everywhere,” said environmental researcher Tony Walker. “We’re drowning in them, and we shouldn’t be.”
To combat the problem, several of Canada’s big grocers have introduced solutions. Last week, Walmart launched a free national recycling pilot program for the retailer’s reusable blue bags. Competitors Sobeys and chains owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd. use recyclable paper bags for grocery delivery.
But some environmental experts argue that paper bags are also problematic and that the best solutions are those that help customers actually reuse their reusable bags.
“We just can’t keep giving [them] out,” said Walker, a professor at Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies in Halifax. “We’re only meant to have a few of them, and we’re meant to use them until they fall apart.”
In late 2022, the federal government rolled out a ban on the manufacture, import and sale of several single-use plastics, including checkout bags. The regulations are being contested in court, but in the meantime, they remain in effect.
The regulations have made single-use shopping bags scarce in Canada, but they’ve also led to the proliferation of reusable bags, especially for grocery delivery.
“It just creates more waste, which is what we’re trying to avoid in the first place,” Walmart customer Udi Sela said in a CBC News interview in late 2022.
At the time, Sela, who lives in Maple, Ont., estimated his family had acquired about 300 reusable Walmart bags via grocery delivery.
“We can’t return them, we can’t do much with them.”
Now, a little more than a year later, Walmart has launched a pilot project to address the problem.
It allows customers to pack up their unwanted reusable Walmart blue bags and ship them — at no charge — to a facility where they’ll get a second life.
How it works
According to Walmart, bags in good condition will be laundered and donated to charity, primarily Food Banks Canada. Damaged bags will get recycled into other materials. Reusable bags typically can’t go in blue bins because they’re costly and difficult to recycle.
Customers must sign up for Walmart’s program, and enrolment is limited.
Jennifer Barbazza, Walmart’s senior manager of sustainability, said the retailer will fine-tune the details as the program progresses.
“[We] know that some customers have more reusable bags than maybe they need,” she said. “One of the things that we’re really excited to learn about from the pilot is customer acceptance and customer feedback.”
WATCH | Is your home overrun with reusable bags? Join the club:
Reusable bags are living rent free in closets and car trunks across the country. Most major retailers made the switch away from single-use plastic bags about a year ago, but it’s taking time for some customers to catch on. They’re forgetting to bring their bags with them, and buying more every week.
Udi Sela has already signed up.
“I definitely think it’s a step in the right direction,” he said in an interview on Friday. “It’s something that needed to be done a while ago. God knows we’ve got a ton of bags kind of piled up.”
He said he’s concerned that some customers may find mailing the bags a hurdle. However, it’s not deterring Sela, who soon plans to ship hundreds.
Passing the buck?
Not everyone is keen on Walmart’s project. Emily Alfred, a waste campaigner with Toronto Environmental Alliance, said donating the bags to the food bank is just passing on the problem.
“We need to remove waste from the system entirely, and just sending these somewhere else for someone else to deal with is not really a solution,” she said.
Alfred said a better option is a program Walmart piloted in Guelph, Ont., in 2022. For a fee, customers could check out reusable bags from an in-store kiosk and later return them to be cleaned and reused.
“That’s a real circular reuse system,” she said.
Walmart’s Barbazza said the retailer is continuing to explore different reusable bag programs, including ones placed in stores.
She also said she’s confident Canada’s food banks will make good use of the bags.
“There’s definitely a need for sturdy items to distribute materials to the food bank clients.”
The paper problem
Among Canada’s major grocers, only Walmart offers a reusable bag program for all customers.
Loblaw recently switched from reusable to recyclable paper bags for grocery delivery. Sobeys did not respond to requests for comment, but according to its website, the grocer also uses paper bags and “reusable options” for home delivery.
Several environmental experts say paper bags aren’t a good solution, because their production leaves a sizable carbon footprint.
“Paper bags are a problem,” Alfred said. “It takes a lot of energy to recycle paper, takes a lot of trees and energy to make new paper.”
Loblaw said it continues to explore a variety of more sustainable solutions. “It’s a challenge we’re committed to addressing,” spokesperson Dave Bauer said in an email.
Both Walker and Alfred applaud Metro for its grocery delivery program, because the grocer, which operates in Ontario and Quebec, reuses delivery materials.
Metro said customers can get their goods delivered in a cardboard box or reusable bags, which can be returned and used for another delivery. Or customers can opt for a plastic bin and remove their groceries from it upon arrival.
Metro does not offer similar programs for in-store shoppers.
Alfred said the federal government should introduce regulations that mandate retailers adopt effective reusable bag programs for all customers.
“It’s up to our governments and people to demand that these companies do better,” she said.
But Walker suggested that the regulations would be hard to enforce and that incentives could be a better tactic.
For example, if retailers increased the price of reusable bags, shoppers might be less likely to forget them when they head to the store, he said.
“When the cost is a disincentive to do an activity, people change their behaviour.”
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