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 accuses Nygard of drugging women by putting “Rohypnol and/or other mind-altering drugs in their drinks.” There are no criminal charges associated with any of the allegations. Nygard’s lawyer has denied the accusations. (YouTube)
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.
VANDERHOOF, B.C. – British Columbia Conservatives are promising changes they say will bring more stability to the province’s struggling forest industry.
Leader John Rustad announced his plan for the sector a week before the official launch of the provincial election campaign, saying a Conservative government would do away with stumpage fees paid when timber is harvested and instead put a tax on the final products that are produced.
Rustad said Saturday that under a provincial Conservative government, a small fee may be charged upfront, but the bulk would come at the end of the process, depending on what type of product is created.
He also promised to review how wildfires are managed, as well as streamline the permit process and review what he calls the province’s “uncompetitive cost structure.”
“British Columbia is by far the highest cost producers of any jurisdiction in North America. We need to be able to drive down those costs, so that our forest sector can actually be able to do the reinvestment, to be able to create the jobs and make sure that they’re still there to be able to support our communities,” he said.
The governing New Democrats meanwhile, say eliminating stumpage fees would inflame the softwood lumber dispute with the United States and hurt forestry workers.
In a statement issued by the NDP, Andrew Mercier, the party’s candidate in Langley-Willowbrook, said Rustad failed to support the industry when he was in government under the former BC Liberals.
“Not only will Rustad’s old thinking and recycled ideas fail to deliver, his proposal to eliminate stumpage would inflame the softwood lumber dispute — punishing forestry workers and communities,” Mercier said, accusing Rustad of ignoring the complexity of the challenges facing the industry.
The softwood lumber dispute between the U.S. and Canada stretches back decades. In August, the U.S. Department of Commerce nearly doubled duties on softwood lumber.
International Trade Minister Mary Ng has said Canada has taken steps to launch two legal challenges under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.
Rustad said a provincial Conservative government would push hard to get a deal with the United States over the ongoing dispute “whether it’s with the rest of Canada or by itself.”
He said his party’s proposed changes are in the name of bringing “stability” and “hope” to the industry that has seen multiple closures of mills in rural communities over the last several years.
Most recently, Canfor Corp. decided to shutter two northern British Columbia sawmills earlier this month, leaving hundreds of workers unemployed by the end of the year.
According to the United Steelworkers union, Canfor has closed 10 mills in the province since November 2011, including nine in northern B.C.
Jeff Bromley, chair of the United Steelworkers wood council, said Saturday the idea of changes in favour of taxing the final product has been floated in the past.
He said the finer details of the Conservative plan will be important, but that the system needs to be improved and “new ideas are certainly something I’d be willing to entertain.”
“Something needs to happen, or the industry is just going to bleed and wither away and be a shadow of its former self,” Bromley said.
“Politics aside, if (Rustad) can come up with a policy that enables my members to work, then I would be supportive of that. But then I’m supportive of any government that would come up with policies and fibre for our mills to run. Period.”
When Canfor announced its latest closures, Forests Minister Bruce Ralston said the sector was a “foundational part” of the province and the current NDP government would work to support both local jobs and wood manufacturing operations.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers placed All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey on injured reserve because of his lingering calf and Achilles tendon injuries.
The move made Saturday means McCaffrey will miss at least four more games after already sitting out the season opener. He is eligible to return for a Thursday night game in Seattle on Oct. 10.
McCaffrey got hurt early in training camp and missed four weeks of practice before returning to the field on a limited basis last week. He was a late scratch for the opener on Monday night against the Jets and now is sidelined again after experiencing pain following practice on Thursday.
McCaffrey led the NFL last season with 2,023 yards from scrimmage and was tied for the league lead with 21 touchdowns, winning AP Offensive Player of the Year.
The Niners made up for McCaffrey’s absence thanks to a strong performance from backup Jordan Mason, who had 28 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown in San Francisco’s 32-19 victory over the New York Jets. Mason is set to start again Sunday at Minnesota.
After missing 23 games because of injuries in his final two full seasons with Carolina, McCaffrey had been healthy the past two seasons.
He missed only one game combined in 2022-23 — a meaningless Week 18 game last season for San Francisco when he had a sore calf. His 798 combined touches from scrimmage in the regular season and playoffs were the third most for any player in a two-year span in the past 10 years.
Now San Francisco will likely rely heavily on Mason, a former undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech who had 83 carries his first two seasons. He had at least 10 touches just twice before the season opener, when his 28 carries were the most by a 49ers player in a regular-season game since Frank Gore had 31 against Seattle on Oct. 30, 2011.
The Niners also have fourth-round rookie Isaac Guerendo and Patrick Taylor Jr. on the active roster. Guerendo played three offensive snaps with no touches in the opener. Taylor had 65 carries for Green Bay from 2021-23.
San Francisco also elevated safety Tracy Walker III from the practice squad for Sunday’s game against Minnesota.
BRUSSELS – Canada walked away with some hardware at the Diamond League track and field competition Saturday.
Alysha Newman finished third in women’s pole vault, while Marco Arop did the same in the men’s 800-metre race.
Newman won a bronze medal in her event at the recent Paris Olympics. Arop grabbed silver at the same distance in France last month.
Australia’s Nina Kennedy, who captured gold at the Summer Games, again finished atop the podium. Sandi Morris of the United States was second.
Newman set a national record when she secured Canada’s first-ever pole vault medal with a bronze at the Olympics with a height of 4.85 metres. The 30-year-old from London, Ont., cleared 4.80 metres in her second attempt Saturday, but was unable conquer 4.88 metres on three attempts.
Arop, a 25-year-old from Edmonton, finished the men’s 800 metres with a time of one minute 43.25 seconds. Olympic gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya was first with a time of 1:42.70.
Djamel Sedjati, edged out by Arop for silver in Paris last month, was second 1:42.87
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
