Winnipeg revokes Peter Nygard's key to the city after sex assault conviction

The City of Winnipeg has stripped Peter Nygard of the city's highest honour after he was found guilty of multiple counts of sexual assault in Toronto earlier this month.

The former fashion mogul and now convicted sex offender lost his key to the city earlier this week, after Mayor Scott Gillingham asked for it to be rescinded, the mayor's office said in a statement Saturday.

During a Thursday city council meeting, St. Norbert-Seine River Coun. Markus Chambers said Nygard's "recent court proceedings, including his conviction ... call into question the trust and honour the key to the city represents," and he asked Mayor Scott Gillingham what steps were being taken in response to that.

Gillingham replied that he had asked that the city's protocol officer to strike Nygard's name from the list of key to the city recipients.

Gillingham's office said this is the first time the honour has ever been taken away from a recipient.

Nygard, who founded the clothing company Nygard International in Winnipeg in 1967, received the honour in 2008 from then mayor Sam Katz.

A jury found Nygard guilty of four counts of sexual assault on Nov. 12 after he was accused of attacking five women in the private bedroom suite in his downtown Toronto office.

He was acquitted of one of the five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement.

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. He faces extradition to the United States on those charges.

In February 2020, prior to his criminal charges, 10 women filed a civil class-action lawsuit accusing him of raping them at his seaside mansion in the Bahamas and operating what they refered to as a "sex trafficking ring." Others later signed on to that lawsuit, which was put on hold later that year.

After the class action was filed, then Winnipeg mayor Brian Bowman said in February 2020 if the charges against Nygard were proven in court, the city should take back the key — an honour awarded to those who have made significant contributions to the city.

At the time, Bowman's spokesperson said the mayor found the allegations against Nygard "grotesque."

Nygard, 82, still faces one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement in Quebec. He is scheduled to stand trial in Quebec on those charges in June 2024.

He also faces sexual assault-related charges in Manitoba, where his next court date is set for Dec. 8.

He has consistently denied all allegations against him.