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WARNING: This article contains details of sexual violence.
Scott Fielding, a former Manitoba cabinet minister and Winnipeg city councillor, is facing a charge of sexual assault after a months-long investigation following an incident in 2024, police say.
Fielding was arrested Thursday, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a Friday news release. He was released on an undertaking to appear in court at a later date.
Police say in March 2024, Fielding and a 34-year-old co-worker were at a social event with other workers after attending a conference. At the end of the evening, he took her back to her hotel room, where the sexual assault occurred, police allege.
Fielding was a city councillor for Winnipeg’s St. James-Brooklands ward from 2006 to 2014. He later successfully ran provincially for the Progressive Conservatives in 2016 in Kirkfield Park and served as families minister, finance minister and natural resources minister.
According to court documents, Winnipeg police started investigating Fielding in 2025 after a co-worker at KPMG, a national consulting firm, reported he sexually assaulted her in March 2024.
They filed a production order in November 2025 to obtain a copy of an internal investigation conducted by KPMG after the woman came forward.
He resigned his seat in the legislature in 2022 and started working at KPMG, one of Canada’s largest private consulting firms.
The consulting firm is not under investigation, the production order document states.
Assault at hotel room: affidavit
The sexual assault happened at a Winnipeg hotel following a work conference after-party in March 2024, according to a Winnipeg detective’s sworn affidavit.
At the after-party, Fielding “continuously purchased alcoholic beverages for her, as well as other colleagues,” the document says.
At the end of the night, Fielding escorted the woman to the hotel room and “forced his way in,” according to the document.
“She pleaded with him to stop but he ignored her pleas,” the detective wrote in the affidavit. “She attempted to crawl away, but he continued to be forceful and yell profanities at her.”
The woman suffered bite marks and scratches, the document states. She did not seek medical attention and a sexual assault exam was not conducted, it says.
She first reported the assault to RCMP, but after “contact attempts were met with negative results,” the file was closed and forwarded to Winnipeg police.
The woman later told police she “was ready to move forward,” and a statement was taken by police in another jurisdiction in 2025.
CBC News is not identifying the other jurisdiction in order to protect the identity of the woman.
Interviews were conducted with witnesses and police obtained documentation from the woman’s psychologist, which included her referring to being sexually assaulted in March 2024.
One witness interviewed by police said he did not see any “concerning behaviour between the two that evening,” according to the court document.
A formal complaint was filed in April 2024 with KPMG, which conducted an independent internal investigation, according to the document.
Fielding resigned from the firm at the conclusion of the investigation, it says.
The detective said police want to obtain the internal KPMG investigation because they believe it “will support the offence of sexual assault.”
A spokesperson for KPMG said it fully co-operated with the police investigation. Since the matter is now before the courts, the spokesperson said they would not be commenting further.
Fielding did not respond to a request for comment.
Court documents obtained by CBC News provide more details on the sexual assault allegations against Fielding, a former Manitoba finance minister and Winnipeg city councillor.
