Uncover - S9 "Evil By Design" E5: ‘It’s always been known in Winnipeg’

Episode Date: March 27, 2021

Journalists have been trying to report on the allegations against Peter Nygard for decades now. How has so much been kept so quiet for so long? This is Uncover: Evil By Design. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/uncover/evil-by-design-transcripts-listen-1.5886427

They called it a school, but what kind of school has a graveyard? He says, you know what, I can't wait to get out of this hellhole. And that was the last time we heard from him. The kind of school that was meant to kill the Indian in the child. I have never seen such abject fear as what I saw in that child. And I have never seen such abject evil as what was in that man. I'm Duncan McHugh, and this is Cooper Island. Available now on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a CBC Podcast. The following episode contains difficult subject matter and accounts of sexual assault. Please take care. I started the Free Press in 1986 to 2016, so actually I think it was 85 to 2016. Catherine Mitchell spent years as a reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press, the city's largest daily newspaper. I met her when I first started working on this story, looking into Peter Nygaard. Decades earlier, her groundbreaking reporting

had begun to reveal early hints of the allegations Nygaard faces today. But there was always some mystery surrounding her work, a rumor I'd heard about how her investigation had somehow been cut short. You asked me in terms of regret, and I guess the one regret that I had was that story deserved to be told. A story buried by wealth and power.

I think that's why I'm here. Because this woman was hurt and was abused. I don't think that she ever had appropriate justice for what happened. I just wanted to support what she is saying still to this day. just wanted to support what she is saying still to this day. I'm Timothy Sawa, and this is Evil by Design. Episode 5. It's always been known in Winnipeg. Definitely people knew who Peter Nygaard was and what Nygaard International meant to the city.

It was the 90s, a time when Nygaard and his company loomed large over Winnipeg. The city's once-booming garment trade was shrinking, but he was still a major employer. He definitely had a big share of the market in the retail, the clothing manufacturing, and certainly Winnipeg was concerned about the fashion industry because with the trade deal coming in, a lot of that work was being sent offshore. By this time, there had been rumors and whispers about Nygaard's predatory behavior for years. People tell women to stay away from Peter Nygaard. There's an undercurrent of,

he's not a reputable guy. Bev Suik is a rights advocate who has spent much of her life trying to improve the conditions of working women in Winnipeg. You hear someone who had a friend who worked there and felt she had to leave because of harassment. It's always been known in Winnipeg that there's a problem there. While numerous women quietly exchanged warnings about Nygaard, only one allegation ever made it to criminal court at the time. In 1980, Nygaard was charged with the rape of an 18-year-old, an accusation he denied.

Prosecutors got the young woman to the stand, but she refused to answer questions, leaving the judge no option but to call a halt to the proceedings. The charge was then stayed, and Nygaard came away vindicated. I've talked to people recently with this whole issue coming up and saying, well, did you know that there was something going on?

I haven't met a person yet who said no. You know, old, young, everybody seems to know that there's something going on, but there was just nothing tangible. Nygaard continued to enjoy his reputation as a womanizer. One magazine called him one of Canada's most eligible millionaires. A profile began with the line, Peter Nygaard was in bed with Miss Sweden when the telephone call came.

That article was published just weeks after he was charged with rape. And even into the 90s, Nygaard was asked in a free press interview about his playboy, jet-setter lifestyle. For decades, his public image remained mostly unscathed. But a group of women who'd worked for Nygaard were about to change that. We're about to change that. It was three women who had left Nygaard because of the abusive atmosphere and brought their complaints to the Manitoba Human Rights Commission and so launched a suit against Nygaard for abusive behaviour, harassment and sexual harassment.

of behavior, harassment, and sexual harassment. I spoke to those three initially, and then was, you know, the cascade effect was given other names, people that not only could corroborate what they were talking about, but who had also suffered similar abusive behavior. So they generally talked about picking up the phone and then just a cascade of screams, a torrent of abuse that way. He would make sexual comments constantly, sort of in the joking manner, description of his office as we've all heard, the bed in the office, how he would touch them inappropriately, touching their bodies and also fondling himself.

And it was just remarkable that these women put up with what they did for so long. The allegations came at a time when women everywhere, all too often, faced difficult and abusive work environments. I do remember very clearly what it was like. It was kind of like put up or shut up. Most women, when they faced sexual harassment and couldn't put up with it, would leave. Like, that was really your only option. You might think about complaining,

but it wouldn't do you any good. First of all, people wouldn't take you seriously. It's either you must have brought it on yourself, it's the way you dress, did he really do that? You know he might have touched your bum but like how serious is that? So you know what could you do? You did put up with it and you know for a lot of women you didn't want to be the spoilsport in the place either. Especially, you know, most women then were not in management positions or positions of power. They were clerks, secretaries, waitresses. And if you wanted to get ahead, you wanted to pretend you were like one of the boys. You could laugh at the jokes, the sexist,

one of the boys. You could laugh at the jokes, the sexist, gross jokes that you really didn't want to laugh at, but you did. And that's just the way it was. You just put up with it. To be clear, these attitudes weren't unique to this small Canadian prairie city. We only need to look to the biggest sex scandal of the 90s, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, to see how a powerful man's behavior got a pass, and the woman raked over the coals. It's against the law to get your friend a job. Shit, she blew him for a couple of months. The least he could do is give her a recommendation. He ain't Reverend Clinton. It ain't Pastor Clinton. It is just Bill Clinton. He's just a man. A man gonna be a man.

A man is basically as faithful as his options. Despite the attitudes of the time, a group of women in Winnipeg risked their reputations to take on Nygaard. Catherine's story comes out in the summer of 1996. It dominates the Saturday edition of the Winnipeg Free Press. Disturbing, deeply reported allegations of abuse and sexual harassment against Winnipeg's golden boy. It's a blockbuster, among the first reporting of its kind to take on Peter Nygaard. I came into work on the Monday morning

and my voicemail was full. And the phone calls continued through the week. It was just sort of a string of people who were coming out of the woodwork with their stories about what they put up with when they worked there. In addition to former co-workers or workers who were still there, who were sharing their stories,

they were being called by Nygaard employees, management employees, because needless to say, Nygaard Internationals was not happy about this. I mean, there's always a cost when you come forward, and I think it speaks to their courage, their bravery. Almost immediately, Nygaard threatened the paper with a lawsuit. But Catherine continued to gather women's accounts, planning for more stories to follow.

This was obviously pre-Me Too era. We were still dealing in a general culture, I would say, societal culture of can't you take a joke kind of thing. And it was clear that this wasn't, you know, the occasional comment that was misinterpreted or just the guys having fun kind of thing. This was a pattern of behavior and it was very abusive. this was a pattern of behavior and it was very abusive. Of the many tips that flooded the newsroom, there was one story that stood out. Well, I'm born in the country on a family farm.

We're sitting in Jonna Larsen's home in northern Denmark. Her house is tucked away on one of the town's main streets, near a small square with cafes, a church and a museum. The town itself overlooks the fjords. Jonna is in her 70s now and retired. She's warm and welcoming, but also looks as though she's bracing herself for what's to come. She takes a seat in her favorite chair.

Her daughter Zita hovers nearby. When I was very young, my mom and dad told me that they wanted to go to Canada. For Jonna's family, Canada seemed to promise a better future. Then, after many years, like I was working with the clothing industry, and I got pregnant when I was 18, so I never got a degree. But I was very good at being a seamstress and designing things. It was the early 70s. Joanna was an ambitious 20-something when a door opened.

She was offered work in Canada. I have never been afraid of trying new things. Well, I fell in love with Canada right away. My daughter came and joined me, and I got a good job at Levi's. Then, after being headhunted, she's offered a job at Nygaard's company, called Tanjay at the time. I'd never heard about it. I didn't wear Nygaard clothing. I've never seen it anywhere.

In 1980, while she was getting ready for her first day, Nygaard was in the news. They said that Mr. Nygaard of 10J was charged with raping a girl. And I was like, what? I hadn't met him. I didn't know who he was. I have checked the company I was in,

but I've never seen anything at that time about accusations of sexual harassment or anything. And I was just shocked. And I thought, well, what do I do now? Well, I'll have to ask some questions. She talked with a company executive. She talked with a company executive. he was trying to polish the whole thing. I arrived and saw all these posters of Nygaard. By that time, I hadn't met him in person. I just thought he looked ugly. Sorry, but that's what I thought.

Like an overgrown teenager in his open shirts and his pointed fingers in the belt loops. At first, Janna's interactions with Nygaard were rare. But the longer she was at Tanjay, the more she found herself in Nygaard's company. He was overly nice, but I didn't think of him as a nice person. He looked strange. I can't explain it.

He tried to smile, but his mouth was smiling, but not his eyes. I was put on a pedestal like I was something fantastic from Denmark, and I was good at designing, and it made me feel comfortable. But Nygaard made me feel uncomfortable. Even when I had to present the line that I had designed and was called up on the podium to show the things I had done and I used myself as a model, a suggestion from an eye guard, that he would go up and he would touch my breast and, well, you have to lift this because your one breast is too low.

The others in the room said nothing. There were just ten men sitting there like they had nothing to do. Nobody has ever put me in such an uncomfortable situation. But I knew at that time that he had the final word in everything. And I could not afford to complain about anything because we were going to establish a life in Canada. And I was beginning to form plans not being a tendier. But everything went so fast. Then I had to do this. Then I had to go across Canada. Then I had to make a line. Then I had all eight seamstresses working for me or under me. And I was working almost 24 hours a day. One of the few perks of the job was business travel.

Before long, Jana's role required her to fly to Southeast Asia, where Nygaard had production centers. He announced that he was going to take me on a trip to the Far East. Jana's travel itinerary from 40 years ago is a blur. She visited various cities in Asia more than once, including Hong Kong and Taipei. And she has the passport stamps to prove it. Her recollection, however, has changed over time about exactly where it happened. But she's never wavered about what happened.

The manager took me to my room that was on the top floor and a huge room. And I was just a country girl still at that time. I'd never seen anything like it. There was chocolates and stationery with my name on it and one room connected to another room. Jana asked a hotel employee to secure the door to the adjoining room. He locked the door, took the handle out and showed me the key and put it in his pocket. I just wanted to be safe. I had jet lag. I was tired. I was just so happy finally to get to bed. That was a long trip from Winnipeg and about 1.30 and I know the time because there was a clock with the illuminated numbers on it. There was somebody in my bed and I woke up and I saw it was Nygaard.

And I was about to say something and he put his hand over my mouth. He said, just don't worry, you're a nice girl and I'm not going to hurt you. And yeah. But he raped me. But he raped me. I felt dirty. He's a big person. Like I couldn't do anything. And he said, well, this is just it.

Don't go to the police. You won't get anything out of it. But after he left, I got up and I sat in a chair and I cried and I thought it was... I just couldn't stay at Tangier anymore, but I didn't know what to do. Everything was just... bad. Everything was just bad. Thinking back, I could have quit my job right there, but I didn't know how to survive.

I buried it. Like I remember saying to myself, I'll make sure that I'm never alone with this man again. I think I was afraid of being fired. I wasn't ready for that. Because I didn't have a plan what to do next. I remember sitting in the chair crying that everything was just a bit a mess. And I thought, well, maybe it will go away. Now it's like it happened yesterday.

All of this time, Jana's daughter Zita has been sitting quietly at a nearby table. She gets up and walks over to her mother. They embrace and cry quietly together. She tells her mother she loves her. It's good having my daughter here as well. I never think that I really told her the details. It's unpleasant, but yet I feel good about her knowing it. In the morning, Iona saw no other option but to return to work.

The next morning, we were called down at 8 o'clock, full office of workers and people showing fabrics and very busy around. And Nygaard was already there, and I didn't really know where to look and what to do with myself, but I felt his eyes on my back all the time. But I was very careful not to be too close to him. I didn't want to think about it. Because I was doing my job,

to think about it. Because I was doing my job, I had a desire to talk to somebody about it the next day. Jana says she told a senior Nygaard executive, who was traveling with her in Asia at the time.

He asked if I was going to do something about it. I told that to me mean go to the police. I said, well, I don't think that's an option to me in my situation. And then he was very, like, empathetic. I felt he was sorry. Whether he believed me or not, I don't really know. We tracked that executive down.

He had stayed and moved up the ranks of the Nygaard companies, but says he has no recollection of Jana at all, or her allegation. When Jana returned to Winnipeg, she threw herself into her work and the launch of a new clothing line. So I was working, working, working. And as long as I was working, I didn't think about this and what happened to me. It was secondary. I was working and I was making sure that we had a life, my daughter and I, in Winnipeg.

And that was the most important thing to me. But in the months that followed, Janice's Nygaard continued to torment her. He followed me home. He followed me in his Excalibur, so I knew it was him. And he scared me. I was afraid of him. We've already heard of Nygaard keeping tabs on the women he's been accused of assaulting. Then one day, he came to the front door with an excuse,

and if I had a few minutes, so I let him in. And he sat down and he had lots of time. I said, well, I'm helping Sitte with her homework and I don't really have time. What is it you want? And then he made something up. But she knew or she felt that I wanted to get rid of him. So she was like, Mom, are you finished soon? Because I have to do this homework. So then he left.

Jana felt safer at home. But at work, it was impossible to escape him. Nygaard had been on my back for quite a while, yelling and screaming. Thinking about it, I think because I started to develop a lot of resentment. I thought he was a jerk. And I remember that I had a hard time not showing it. So when he got up and he would do, your breast is too low and you have to do this here because I would just take his arm away. He wasn't in doubt that I didn't like him at all. Because of the rape, because of the sexual harassment, because of the harassment in front of all the people I worked with daily, he was just yelling and screaming at me at the end. in front of all the people I worked with daily.

He was just yelling and screaming at me at the end. Then, in the summer of 1981, less than two years since she began working for Nygaard, Jana is called into the office of another senior executive, a man Jana had never reported to. I see him still, sitting in his chair with the legs on the table in front of him, leaned back. I said, you called me? Yes.

You're fired? She wants to know why. I said, well, Mr. Nygaard had asked me to fire you. And then I cried, and all of a sudden, I got extremely mad. And I yelled at him, I remember, I said, Mr. Nygaard will regret this. I'm going to the police. Then he was up in a second. What do you mean?

And I told him he had raped me. Then I walked out, and I remember slamming the door because I was so mad I just had to get it out of my system. I remember having a thought, I have to have a new job fast, and are they going to believe me? And the company might turn it around that I had done something wrong. Like, I really didn't know what to do.

I was sad and I was mad. Within hours of her dismissal, Iona says she got a visit from two senior Nygaard employees. They'd come to make a deal. If she agreed to stay quiet, they would change her firing to a resignation and give her $8,000. With no other work lined up, Iana felt she had no choice but to take it. For months, she tried to find another job in fashion, But doors closed on her at every turn. I thought, does Nygaard have something on anybody in the jean business in Winnipeg? Since nobody dared to speak to me.

I tried to hang in there, selling Mary Kay products in 82. I was unemployment and we barely made it. Then, nearing the end of the year, Jana's younger brother died. She had to return home. She had to return home. Everybody thought it took such a courage of me to establish a life in Canada, and I felt defeated. Jana returned to her family in Denmark, unable to tell them why. It was overwhelming.

A mixture of a lot of things. Maybe I even had their dream about Canada in my thoughts. And they pushed me in the sense, we'll take care of Sita. And because my parents were just so enthusiastic about Canada and the Canadian way. But her Canadian dream was now dead. And I got killed. First, because of the rape. Secondly, because he was instrumental, I'm sure.

I never saw him that day. I was fired without notice. Through his lawyer, Nygaard says he categorically denies Jonna's allegations, saying they are, quote, completely false. Jana rebuilt her life in Denmark, met her husband, and continued to devote herself to her daughter. She moved on, or tried to, doing her best to leave the rape and her Canadian nightmare in the past. And for a while, she thought they might stay there. Until 14 years after leaving Winnipeg,

Yana got a call from a reporter with the Free Press. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is.

I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. Jana Larsson was one name that I was given at the time she was in Denmark, so I managed to reach her and interview her over the phone. Catherine Mitchell knew

her story needed to be told. It was heartbreaking because a very credible woman, but had continued to work there because she was a single mother at the time. And her story had many of the echoes of the stories that we're still hearing, that hurt by somebody in a position of power, not knowing who I could turn to, who would believe me. Including Yana's story, Catherine was preparing more coverage of Nygaard's sexual misconduct. So I just gathered, as I said, interviewing a number of other women, just gathered more evidence, backing up the women's claims.

Until the journalists were told, stop. It was made clear that we weren't going to continue with the story. Catherine says the publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press killed her investigation and spiked any further stories. When the word went out that there would be no more stories, people were upset. It's like, hey, what the hell's going on? Paul Mackay, as you'll remember, was also at the Free Press. Because that challenges the integrity of the newsroom. You know, they always have these very high-minded ideals on the masthead of the paper about, you know, the cleared for journalistic integrity and legal integrity, and yet you're still spiking it.

People were upset and angry about it. What happened with the spiking? What do you remember about that? Not much, just that it was clear that the spiking came from the office of the publisher, which was very unusual. But this, to my knowledge, was the first time a story had been spiked for nefarious reasons that some outside force had intervened. had intervened. Of course, we asked the publisher at the time, Rudy Redikop, about this. He denies the threat of a lawsuit affected his decision to spike further stories.

Instead, he says he wasn't sure whether the paper was following the right angles. He worried it was going to sensationalize the story. Redikop says Nygaard never contacted him about the coverage. He says the pressure came from, quote, high-positioned Winnipeggers, Nygaard compatriots, and kingpins of the city. He told us,

those people thought that we were on a witch hunt. I guess they didn't know how to believe that Peter was involved in these things. And so what did the newsroom do about it? There was a reporter at the time who was not involved in the story, and they were very upset about it and started up a petition and said, well, I want to present this to Rudy Redikpop. to present this to Rudy Reddick Pop.

We sat down saying, we're here to protest the decision to spike further stories on the Nygaard issue. And he took the paper. He didn't even look at it. And he threw it to the side of his desk and it went straight into his garbage pail and the two of us were just in complete shock we knew he didn't want to receive the petition but we never thought he'd do that from the look on his face he clearly saw the looks on our face and immediately reached into the garbage can and pulled it out and just patted it once and said i'll look at it later and basically what he said essentially was i'm not going to be the publisher

going to be the publisher of the free press that sends hundreds of Nygaard jobs out of the city. And that was it. That was his argument. Redekopp says he doesn't remember saying this, nor does he recall the meeting with Paul, or receiving this petition at all. But reflecting on his decision in 1996, he says it was a different time, and he would do things differently today. It's true. While many employers were moving jobs offshore at the time, Nygaard kept much of his operations in Canada. In the 90s, he employed more than a thousand people in his Winnipeg factories, retail stores, and offices. In a letter to the editor, published by the Free Press at the time,

Nygaard's late sister warned, quote, Your quest for sensationalism may well have a severe impact on the 1,200 employees who depend on Nygaard International for their paychecks. for their paychecks. The jobs and prestige that Nygaard and his company brought to the Prairie City became a sort of camouflage. In 1981, a year after Iona says she was raped, the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce gave Nygaard

an Award for Canadian Distinction. And in 1985, he was given the Winnipeg Community Service Award. It all raises the question, was Nygaard too valuable to Winnipeg to be outed? It seems Peter Nygaard had enough influence at the top that those around him were willing to defend and look beyond his vicious behavior with little regard for the women he abused.

Bev Suick. Peter Nygaard definitely has power, and he definitely has money, and he has a reputation. That would make it difficult to pursue a rape charge. You would certainly think twice, three times, four times, before you would say anything. You just wouldn't. Jana certainly deserved to have her story told, and it wasn't.

And, I mean, that's regrettable. It's all very regrettable. Catherine still has the transcript of her interview with Jana from the 1990s. And while it was never published, Jana's identical retelling, decades later, strengthens her case today. She has just stayed true to her story. She's very credible. And so, again, just really admire her courage.

Catherine hopes something good will come from Yana telling her story again, now publicly. One sort of common element for those who have been sexually harassed, those who have been sexually abused is that self-doubt, general recrimination, nobody's going to believe me, you know, that kind of thing. And so it's really important to get these stories out, not just as sort of a, as a warning to other women, but also to alleviate, if not eliminate, the stigma that's attached to this and maybe change behaviour. There had been rumours for years that the Winnipeg Free Press' reporting on Peter Nygaard

had somehow been halted in the 90s. But pressure faced by journalists to kill or change stories is usually subtle and hard to pin down. And because of that, it stays hidden. I honestly thought we would never know the truth about what happened at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1996. But now we do, and there was nothing subtle about it. While Jana never reported her assault to authorities, she hasn't kept quiet. She told Nygaard executives at the time of her rape, only to have employees come to her home with a check. More than a decade later, she told a reporter, only to have her story buried.

Over the years, she spoke to other journalists to try to get her story out there. And today, Jana is telling us. It still affects me. Making me dirty somehow. Making me feel that I should have done something, but I don't know what. I don't get anything out of telling my story, except maybe a bit more peace inside. It's difficult to tell, but I ask for some peace. I ask myself for some peace. I asked myself for some peace. After all those years. I'd waited a decade to meet Jana. To hear her story from her.

I had learned about her assault at the start of my investigation into Nygaard, back in 2009. I'd done everything I could to try to speak to her, but she said she didn't want to talk, not after what had happened to her with the Winnipeg Free Press. At the time, I had no idea how much she'd been through. But soon I'd be facing what the Free Press did in 1996, pressure to stay silent, to end our investigation. But this time it would go much further than phone calls from powerful friends

and the threat of a lawsuit. I'd be facing up to five years in prison. Coming up on Evil by Design. I'm calling about the issue of potential prosecution for defamatory libel under the criminal code. What was I going to do? Just turn a blind eye and carry on and just let him abuse and victimize people? When I first was hired, Nygaard told me that the reason why Jesus is so popular is because he had a good PR team. So he wanted everything filmed.

We received summonses informing us that we were being criminally charged under the Criminal Code of Canada. If anything you've heard in this episode has left you looking for someone to talk to, please visit cbc.ca slash uncover. We have a number of resources there for those in need of help and support. Evil by Design is a co-production between CBC Podcasts and The Fifth Estate. You can find The Fifth Estate's latest documentary, Peter Nygaard, The Secret Videos, on YouTube. This podcast is written by producer Ashley Mack, associate producer Alina Ghosh, and me, Timothy Sawa, with assistance from Lynette Fortune at The Fifth Estate.

Mixing and sound design by Evan Kelly, with technical assistance from Laura Antonelli. For this episode, special thanks goes to Kimberly Ivany, Linda Guerrero, Lisa Mayer, and Bob McEwen. Emily Canal is our digital producer. Fact-checking by Emily Mathieu. Thank you. is Araf Noorani.