Canada’s most famous prisoner, disgraced former fashion mogul Peter Nygard, is making another bid to try to get out of Manitoba’s Headingley Correctional Centre today.
Nygard, who is 79, was arrested in December at the request by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which wants him extradited.
He faces nine charges, including racketeering and sex trafficking for crimes that took place over 25 years and involved dozens of victims–including some who were underage–in the U.S., Canada and the Bahamas.
Justice Jennifer Pfuetzner was due to hear Nygard’s bail appeal Thursday in the Manitoba Court of Appeal. He is fighting extradition to the U.S., where he is accused of numerous allegations, including sex trafficking. (The Associated Press/Annie I. Bang)
For the last two months his lawyers have been trying to win him bail.
They were due to take another shot today, saying Nygard risks heart failure if he stays in prison.
Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Jennifer Pfuetzner will make the call.
Nygard, meanwhile, will not appear in person but will be able to call in by phone, which is something he very much has plenty of access to.
A Nygard store in Winnipeg is shown on February 26, 2020 after ten women filed a lawsuit accusing Nygard of enticing young and impoverished women to his estate in the Bahamas. Several alleged they were 14 or 15 years old when Nygard raped them. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)
In a story published today, CBC News’s Caroline Barghout and Vera-Lynn Kubinec detail Nygard’s life at Headingley.
“Peter Nygard has been given what no other inmate at Manitoba’s Headingley Correctional Centre has access to: a phone in his cell that he can use 16 hours a day,” Barghout and Kubinec report.
“The 79-year-old fashion designer also has a TV, a plastic chair and two mattresses that he uses for his back issues, according to court documents filed in his bail appeal.
Nygard’s current residence. (CBC)
“In an affidavit, Todd Schreyer, assistant superintendent of security at Headingley Correctional Centre, says Nygard has been given a phone in his cell, which he is allowed to access 16 hours a day.
“‘Mr. Nygard has phone access from 0700 hours to 2300 hours daily. No other cell at HCC has similar phone access,’ said Schreyer.
“‘Due to Mr. Nygard’s request for constant contact with his legal team, this is the only location at which we can accommodate him and ensure his safety due to the high profile nature of his case.'”
Schreyer told CBC News that Nygard’s cell is large enough to accommodate three inmates and bigger than the cells in the general population block.
He also has two mattresses, “which he uses to help with his back issues and sleeping issues maintaining what he claims is a 45 degree angle to sleep.”
Nygard was also moved so he didn’t have to climb stairs to get to the medical or shower areas, said Schreyer, adding that because Nygard is in a protective custody unit whenever he needs to use the showers or go to the medical unit, the area is locked down in order to ensure his safety.
Nygard lived in the Bahamas at Nygard Cay for 40 years before returning to Canada in 2019. (CBC)
Nygard’s treatment, Barghout and Kubinec report, is not sitting well with some, including Crystal Brown, a community justice development co-ordinator at Southern Chiefs Organization, which includes 34 First Nations.
“It brings forward the different justice systems that are available for Indigenous people, people of colour,” Brown said.
“This is treatment that other inmates obviously aren’t receiving. It looks like he’s having a decent experience,” she said. “It doesn’t sound from the affidavit that he’s experiencing a lot of discomfort.”
With files from CBC News (Caroline Barghout, Vera-Lynn Kubinec), RCI
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