Judge denies Peter Nygard’s request to delay Toronto sex assault sentencing

Caitlyn Gowriluk · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 19, 2024 5:45 PM EDT | Last Updated: July 19

Peter Nygard’s Toronto sentencing hearing will go ahead next week after the disgraced fashion mogul lost a bid to have the dates pushed back once again, in a sexual assault case that has dragged out since he was convicted last fall.

Appearing in a virtual court hearing on Friday, Toronto Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein said he “simply will not entertain” any more requests to delay the case involving Nygard, whose earlier dates were rescheduled in part because his last two defence lawyers resigned over ethical concerns.

Goldstein on Friday dismissed Winnipeg-based defence lawyer Gerri Wiebe’s application to delay the sentencing again — a month after he “very reluctantly” agreed to push back the last one to give her time to get up to speed on the case after being brought on as Nygard’s latest lawyer, but vowed not to allow any further delays unless Nygard “is in a coma.”

“Let me repeat what I said on the last occasion, and I will quote,” Goldstein said. “There will be no more adjournments. This matter will go ahead.”

Wiebe asked for another adjournment this month to give her more time to call expert evidence and gather records to speak to Nygard’s medical condition, and because of a personal tragedy the lawyer had recently suffered. 

The two-day Toronto sentencing hearing is scheduled to go ahead as planned July 24 and 25, when Nygard is expected to appear in person. If a witness or expert is unavailable on those dates, the judge said, “they had either make themselves available or they will not be testifying.”

A medical report provided to the court in early May suggested Nygard has lost about 30 pounds since his arrest and is down to 165 pounds, court heard at a previous appearance.

Nygard now requires a wheelchair and spends 16 to 18 hours a day in bed. He continues to take medication for bladder, prostate and high blood pressure issues that he had before being arrested, court heard.

Goldstein previously acknowledged Nygard’s condition has declined, while also suggesting some of that could be related to aging. He also said it was possible Nygard could be exaggerating some of his symptoms as a delay tactic — which Nygard has denied.

Wiebe was hired as Nygard’s lawyer after lawyer Megan Savard resigned in June, which came about three months after she stepped in following the resignation of Brian Greenspan in January.

Nygard, 82, was accused of attacking five women between the late-1980s and 2005 in a private bedroom at his downtown Toronto office building.

A Toronto jury found him guilty on four counts of sexual assault in November. He was acquitted of one count of sexual assault and another of forcible confinement.

Nygard ‘already exceeded life expectancy’: Crown

Crown attorney Neville Golwalla said Friday while he expects Nygard’s defence to argue the octogenarian shouldn’t be given an excessive sentence that exceeds his life expectancy, “as far as I can tell, Mr. Nygard has already exceeded life expectancy for a Canadian adult male.”

“The reality that you have to deal with with Mr. Nygard is that he is an older man,” Golwalla said.

Wiebe said she disagreed with the Crown position that the court will be bound by a three- to five-year sentence for the offences Nygard was convicted of, adding judges have discretion to go above or below those ranges. 

She said while it’s likely Nygard will be given a sentence that keeps him in custody, the question of exactly where that will be — in the federal penitentiary system or in the provincial one — is expected to be “a live issue” at sentencing.

Wiebe said the defence plans to argue for a sentence of less than two years going forward, to keep Nygard in the custody of the provincial system, “where he has remained alive thus far.”

Nygard has been in custody since December 2020, when he was arrested at a Winnipeg home after he was charged with nine sex-related counts in New York.

Nygard has also been charged with forcible confinement and sexual assault in Montreal and is facing a sexual assault charge in Winnipeg.

Once his Canadian trials wrap, Nygard still faces extradition to the United States on the charges in New York. His lawyers appealed the extradition order.