Canadian Fashion Mogul Found Guilty of Sexual Assault

Facts

A Toronto jury on Sunday found Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard guilty of four counts of sexual assault but acquitted him of a fifth count and a charge of forcible confinement.¹
Four women and a 16-year-old girl had testified that Nygard assaulted them in his private bedroom suite in his namesake clothing company's headquarters between the 1980s and the mid-2000s.²
Furthermore, the complainants alleged they felt trapped as Nygard would often lock them inside the suite, the doors of which they claimed could only be opened via a keypad code.²
However, Nygard denies all allegations, stating that he neither met nor interacted with the victims — though he told the jury his memory had become 'very fuzzy' with age.³
Nygard faces similar charges in Quebec and Manitoba. He also faces extradition to the US, where he is accused of intimidating and assaulting over 57 women.⁴
In 2020, Nygard resigned as chairman of Nygard International — a fashion company he founded in 1967 — after the FBI and police raided his NYC offices. The company has since filed for bankruptcy.⁵

Narrative A, as provided by The Globe and Mail. With this guilty verdict, justice has been served. Though nothing can undo Nygard's horrific exploitation of power, this conclusion has at least brought some resolution to the women he assaulted decades ago. This is certainly a win in the fight to bring even the most influential in society to account.
Narrative B, as provided by Toronto Star. The Nygard saga is a microcosm of the widespread rot created by the exclusivity and concentrations of power in elite society. There needs to be more of a focus on preventing the kind of systemic abuse Nygard got away with for so many years, instead of just reacting to occasional verdicts after the fact. Society still has a long way to go in not only prosecuting predators like Nygard, but also preventing workplace abuse by those in positions of power.