Nygård legal battle against CBC will proceed

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This article was published 27/07/2015 (4005 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A libel case filed by clothing magnate Peter Nygård against the CBC has cleared another hurdle.

Monday, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Douglas Abra dismissed an appeal by Canada’s public broadcaster and instead upheld a 2013 decision by a provincial court judge who ruled there was enough evidence to allow the private criminal prosecution to proceed.

In 2010, the CBC’s investigative program The Fifth Estate aired a documentary exploring the mogul’s personal life, treatment of female employees and business practices. Nygård alleges the CBC, producers Timothy Sawa and Morris Karp, and host Bob McKeown were part of an international conspiracy to discredit him and his clothing empire.

In his private criminal prosecution, Nygård said the CBC’s journalists ignored evidence that key informants featured in the documentary were not trustworthy or reliable. And, Nygård argued the CBC ignored evidence to the contrary when it reported allegations Nygård behaved improperly toward a teenaged girl promised modelling work at his Bahamas estate.

“…I am satisfied that the learned Provincial Court judge was correct in finding that, based upon the correspondence between Sawa, CBC’s lawyers and Nygård’s lawyers, there was sufficient evidence to prove that the applicant all knew that some of the information that was being broadcast could indeed be false,” wrote Abra. He ruled the charges against the CBC can proceed to trial.

Full decision