Fashion Garments

WINNIPEG — A CBC investigation of fashion mogul Peter Nygard undermines him and his business because it distracts his employees at work and home, court documents filed by the clothier charge.

Nygard launched the case against the news agency and three of his former employees in March in an attempt to block story about him from airing on CBC’s investigative series The Fifth Estate.

The documents say the story includes passenger lists of those who flew on his private aircraft, aircraft manifests, confidential e-mails and video of company-related activities at Nygard’s lavish Bahamian resort.

Nygard’s legal team has recently filed related claims against CBC in New York and California.

The CBC story — which has no airing date yet because of the court case — has damaged Nygard’s business, his Winnipeg-based lawyer Richard Good claimed in court filings.

“This has caused an enormous amount of damage to our client at a time when management personnel should be devoting all their energies to protecting the business and its employees from the effects of the economic recession,” Good wrote.

Good said Nygard’s current and former workers have been “harassed” at home by CBC employees trying to dig up information. “Contacting our client’s employees directly and by ambush is not a path to the fair and balanced coverage which CBC is required to achieve.”

Eight have filed formal complaints against CBC, including two former flight attendants who worked for Nygard.

Nygard also claims CBC promised to legally defend two former employees if they helped with the story — a claim CBC denies, saying that the obtained information was provided voluntarily by the former employees.

“This is a most unusual case . . . Nygard is suing the former employees for telling the truth,” wrote lawyer Rocky Kravetsky, acting on behalf of Shannon Neufeld, who worked for Nygard as a travel consultant for about eight months in 2007.

Neufeld is one of the three employees being sued, along with former director of human resources Patrick Prowse and former recruitment and retention manager Dana Neal.

Nygard claims Neufeld turned over to CBC information “required by various governments” about the private aircraft used by Nygard.

Good said in the court documents that Neufeld told CBC she was directed by a company official to falsify the flight records of the aircraft to inaccurately state the number of days Nygard spent in Canada, allegedly for federal income tax evasion purposes.

“It is our understanding that in an attempt to create a story, CBC has encouraged Neufeld to meet with the Canadian Revenue Agency to discuss her allegations,” Good said. “This statement by Neufeld is false, scandalous and libellous and extremely injurious to Nygard and its senior personnel.”

In a May 1 letter addressed to both Kravetsky and CBC lawyer Robert Tapper, Good writes: “We are advised CRA has done thorough audits using its own records, that there has never been a dispute about the number of days Nygard’s chairman has spent in Canada and that the total number of such days is always well under the critical 183-day threshold.”

People are deemed residents of Canada for tax purposes if they stay in Canada for 183 days or more a year.

source:http://www.canada.com/news/national/fashion+mogul+Nygard+clash+court/2434259/story.html