Yes, I worked for the company. Not for the man he turned out to be.

Peter Nygard is a convicted sex offender. What he did to women over decades is monstrous. Nothing I write here is meant to soften that by a single degree. I have daughters and granddaughters. When the allegations became public, I was angry and sickened, like every decent person in this city.

So let me answer the question plainly, and once.

In 2012 I took a job with Nygard Biotech, a company in which Peter Nygard held an ownership stake. I handled communications and government relations. Within about four months, I left. I did not like the man, and I did not like how he did business. I walked away on my own terms.

In December 2013, I returned for a couple of weeks on a short contract to help the marketing team launch a product. I did that because good, hardworking people at that company asked for help. I had no quarrel with them. I did not go back for Peter Nygard.

That work ended more than six years before the allegations became public in 2020, and a decade before a Toronto jury convicted him. I have said this since I first sat on city council. The dates have not changed.

Mayor Gillingham has called me a “political fixer” for Nygard. That is false. I was not his fixer. I spent a matter of months doing communications for a biotech firm, including company business I later wanted no part of. I left because I had seen enough of the man.

Yes, there are photos. Winnipeg is a small city, and for years Peter Nygard stood in the middle of its business life. Politicians of every party, business leaders and charities shared rooms with him. Nobody in those pictures knew what the courts later found.

Nahanni Fontaine posted a video to remind Winnipeggers I once worked for him. For decades, companies tied to that name were among the largest private employers in this city. Thousands of people — seamstresses, warehouse staff, accountants, designers, drivers — drew a paycheque from that work. They raised families on those wages. They are not guilty of his crimes. Neither am I. Treating every former employee as tainted is an insult to those workers. Using his victims as a campaign line is worse.

I left because I wanted no part of him. I would make the same decision today.

Kevin