Conrad Black

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Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour PC, OC, KCSG (born 25 August 1944, in Montreal, Quebec), is a prominent and controversial British biographer, financier and former newspaper magnate. He is married to Barbara Amiel, a well-known journalist.

Lord Black was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but renounced Canadian citizenship in 2001 in order to become a life peer in the British House of Lords. Prime Minister Jean Chretien had previously denied Lord Black's application for Peerage based on Canadian policy stipulating that a citizen of Canada cannot accept such honours.

He subsequently described his former citizenship as "an impediment to my progress in another more amenable jurisdiction." The sentiment perceived by the Canadian public was that he had essentially washed his hands of his country of birth. At the time, he expressed a desire to reapply for his citizenship upon the departure of Jean Chretien as Prime Minister. He has since sought to regain Canadian citizenship, as of 2006. It is widely hypothesized that his application for citizenship is purely strategic. If he were found guilty in the United States and he were to regain Canadian citizenship, he could then apply to have his sentence served in Canada.

With the growth of his business and legal difficulties, since 2003 he is believed to have spent much of his time at his mansion in the exclusive Toronto neighbourhood of Bridle Path.

It was reported in the National Post on 18 November 2005, that Black had recently applied for permanent residency status in Canada. If convicted of the serious crimes of which he is accused in the United States, Black might be unable permanently to return to his native Canada, since Canada rarely allows entry to foreign criminals. An agreement between Canada and the United States, however, sometimes permits Canadians convicted in American courts to serve out their sentences in Canada.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Becoming a press baron 3 The peerage controversy and Canadian citizenship 4 Financial controversies 4.1 Trial 5 Other controversies surrounding Black 6 Books written 7 Biography 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Conrad Black was born into a wealthy Toronto family. His father, George Montegu Black, Jr., was the president of Canadian Breweries, an international brewing conglomerate which earlier had absorbed Winnipeg Breweries, which was founded by George Black Sr. (Canadian Breweries was an important holding of Argus Corporation.) Conrad Black's mother was the former Jean Elizabeth Riley, a daughter of Conrad Stephenson Riley (whose father founded the Great-West Assurance Company) and a great-granddaughter of an early co-owner of the Daily Telegraph.

Black was first educated at Upper Canada College from which, according to Tom Bower's recent biography Conrad and Lady Black, he was expelled for selling stolen exam papers. He then attended Trinity College School where he lasted less than a year, eventually graduating from another private school in Toronto called Thornton Hall. He continued his education at Carleton University (History, 1965). For a time, Black attended Toronto's Osgoode Hall Law School. However he dropped out during his first year of study. He eventually completed his law degree at Université Laval (Law, 1970), later completing a Master of Arts degree in history at McGill University in 1973.^[1] His thesis, later published as a biography, was on Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis.

He became involved in a number of businesses, mainly publishing newspapers, but briefly in mining. The Black family founded the Ravelston Corporation in 1969 as an investment vehicle. Together with friends David Radler and Peter G. White, Black purchased and operated the Sherbrooke Record, the small English language daily in Sherbrooke, Quebec. In 1971, the three formed Sterling Newspapers Limited, a holding company that would acquire several other small Canadian regional newspapers.

Black's first marriage was to Joanna Hishon (born Shirley Gail Hishon), of Montreal, by which he has two sons, Jonathan-David and James Patrick Leonard Black, and a daughter, Alana Whitney Elizabeth Black. The couple divorced in 1992. That same year, Black married Barbara Amiel, an English-born journalist who had previously been married to David Graham, George Jonas, and Gary Smith.

Early in his business career Conrad Black was taken under the wing of John Angus "Bud" McDougald and E. P. Taylor, two prominent Canadian businessmen. Following McDougald's death in 1978, Black acquired a controlling interest in the shareholding of Argus Corporation, a mammoth Canadian holding company, through an arrangement, later controversial, with two widows, one of them McDougald's. At the time, Argus owned some of Canada's most prominent blue-chip companies such as Dominion Stores, Canada's largest supermarket chain, Massey Ferguson, Canada's large multi-national farm machinery corporation, Hollinger Mines, an important gold-mining company in Timmins, Ontario, and Norcen Energy, an energy and pipeline operation. Black resigned as Chairman of the struggling Massey Ferguson company in 1979. Argus divested its shares to the employee union. ^[2] Hollinger Mines was turned into a holding company.

In 1990, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was ranked 235th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2004, with an estimated wealth of £175m.

[edit] Becoming a press baron

Black gradually became the latest in a series of Canadian-born British press lords—his predecessors include Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook; Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan; and Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet.

In 1985, Black was approached by Andrew Knight, (then the editor of The Economist), and invited to make an investment in the ailing Telegraph group. By buying into the Telegraph group, Black made his entry into the British press.

By 1990, his companies ran over 400 newspaper titles in North America. Many of these were disposed of toward the end of the 1990s with around 150 titles being sold in a single deal with CanWest Global Communications Corp.

He launched the National Post in Toronto in 1998 but sold his interest in 2001.

[edit] The peerage controversy and Canadian citizenship

Black's initial attempt to accept the British peerage offered to him by the Queen on the advice of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was thwarted by then Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who referred to the 1919 Nickle Resolution, by which the Canadian House of Commons resolved that the Canadian Monarch should not confer titular honours on Canadians.

Black attempted to work around the Canadian Prime Minister by taking dual British and Canadian citizenship, claiming that he would accept the peerage from the Queen as a British citizen rather than as a Canadian citizen. After this proved unsuccessful, with Chrétien still asserting that Blair could not have the Queen give a titular honour to a Canadian, Black initiated a lawsuit against Chrétien, arguing that the Canadian Prime Minister's strict interpretation of the Nickle Resolution, which is not a law, was payback for Black's political opinions and past criticism of Chrétien.

Black lost the lawsuit on the first instance and on appeal, with the court stating that the Prime Minister of Canada was within his constitutional rights to advise the Queen on the exercise of her royal prerogative.[1] In 2001, Black gave up his Canadian citizenship and became Baron Black of Crossharbour in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Even without his Canadian citizenship, Black continues to enjoy the privileges of membership in the Queen's Privy Council for Canada which Brian Mulroney gave him in 1992 which includes the use of a special diplomatic passport.

Then on September 26, 2006, the Globe and Mail reported that Black was taking steps to regain his Canadian citizenship. Lord Black, in an interview on TVOntario, on September 25, claimed that his legal problems had retarded the process by which he would reclaim his citizenship.; "I always said that I would take my citizenship back, and if it wasn't for all these legal problems, I would have done it by now." He told interviewer Steve Paikin that he was working through "normal channels."

Black would be able to retain his seat in the British House of Lords should he regain his Canadian citizenship, a process that might take several years.

Lord Black said that he did not have an "easy sleigh ride" when he was a Canadian, but said that he has become more patriotic and something of a "demonstrative Canadian flag waver."

[edit] Financial controversies

In the 1980s, Black reclaimed $62,000,000 from the surplus of the Dominion workers' pension fund, claiming the surplus was the property of the employer. The Union challenged Black in court and he was ordered to return the money to the workers. Black appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada which upheld the lower court's decision. ^[3]

On 17 November 2003, after an internal inquiry alleged that Black had received more than $7 million in unauthorized payments of company funds, it was announced that he would resign as chief executive of Hollinger. The SEC also launched an investigation of his company's affairs.

On 17 January 2004, Hollinger International reported that the executive committee of the board of directors had obtained Black's resignation as chairman. At the same time the special committee in Hollinger already investigating the unauthorised payments filed a lawsuit in New York for the recovery of the money. Hollinger International also filed a $200 million (USD) lawsuit against Lord Black and his former top lieutenant, David Radler, as well as the companies Black has used to control the publishing it.^[4]

On 15 November 2004, the SEC filed civil fraud lawsuits against Lord Black and several others.^[5]

On 17 November 2005, eleven criminal fraud charges were brought by U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald against Black and three former Hollinger executives. Eight of the criminal fraud charges are against Black, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. After a hearing in late 2006, his bail was raised to $21 million (USD). His American trial was to begin in early 2007.

On 15 December 2005, four new federal charges were laid against Black by Fitzgerald in Chicago. The new counts include racketeering, obstruction of justice, money laundering and wire fraud. Under the racketeering count, Fitzgerald is seeking forfeiture of more than $92,000,000 (USD). The obstruction count against Black relates to a video that appears to show Black illegally removing more than a dozen boxes from the Toronto office of Hollinger Inc^[6]. After the video became public, Black returned boxes of documents about a week later.

An agency of the American government has seized the proceeds of the sale of Black's and Amiel's New York apartment. Hollinger International Inc. sued Black for $200 million (USD) in January 2006.

[edit] Trial

The trial started on March 14, 2007 in Chicago.^[7] The 12 jurors have been selected.

[edit] Other controversies surrounding Black

Black has made several controversial statements, including the suggestions that Canada should join the United States and abandon its universal health care system, Medicare.

Black was also involved, albeit tangentially, in a controversy in December 2001, when the then-French ambassador to the UK, Daniel Bernard, called Israel a "shitty little country" in a conversation the two had at a private dinner party. The conversation was promptly reported by Black's wife, Barbara Amiel, in her newspaper column. The resulting scandal led to Bernard's being reassigned to Algeria the following year.

The media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting criticised an incident in which Black paid the erudite and conservative American columnist George Will $25,000 for a single day of consulting, after which Will wrote favourably about Black without disclosing the payment. [2]

Black has been lampooned by the Canadian humour magazine Frank as "Lord Tubby." It has been suggested that Conrad Black may start a publication as a political commentary forum for past members and people who were previously eligible to be members of the House of Lords. Many British despite feeling that a hereditary or appointed legislate body was outmoded felt that there were individual members whose commentary was a valued addition to the deliberation in the Commons.

Black was the subject of the 2004 documentary film Citizen Black which premiered at the Montreal and Cambridge film festivals. A fictional biographical film on Black and Amiel aired on Canadian television in autumn 2006. Canadian actor Albert Schultz was chosen over William (Bill) MacKay, a Calgary lawyer and actor, for the role of Black in the CTV movie Shades of Black.

[edit] Books written

While CEO of Hollinger International, Conrad Black used its funds to purchase at auction a collection of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt's private papers for several million dollars (USD). With the assistance of his wife (conservative political columnist Barbara Amiel) and other conservative writers, he produced a bestselling 1,280-page biography, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Champion of Freedom, in 2003.

The book relies heavily upon the information in the FDR collection he owns, emphasizing small, sometimes very personal details of FDR's life.

The book maintains that FDR was neither the guileless, patrician altruist that his admirers would like to portray, nor the dupe for Stalin at Yalta that his opponents portray. Rather, FDR is portrayed as a complex individual who was able to marshall the forces that saved the United States from the Great Depression and the world from totalitarianism in World War II.

As a young man Black also wrote a thesis on Quebec's controversial longest serving premier, Maurice Duplessis, which was subsequently published as a biography. Duplessis, who died in office in 1959, had been regarded by Canadian historians and journalists as a reactionary authoritarian; Black defended him as a canny progressive force.

In 1993 Black published an autobiography tited A Life in Progress.

Black's most recent book, The Invincible Quest: the Life of Richard Milhous Nixon, is a biography of US President Richard Nixon that runs 1,000 pages and is due for release in Canada in May. The book reportedly casts Nixon in a more sympathetic light than he is normally seen in. Black has told the Globe and Mail that his next book will be "more personal" and "about the events of the day".^[8].

[edit] Biography

Tom Bower's dual biography Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge (ISBN-13 978-0-00-723234-5) was published by Harper Collins in November 2006. The book paints a negative picture of the couple (extract) and has been dismissed by Black. [3]

In March 2007 Black announced that he was suing biographer Tom Bower for libel.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/black_conrad/timeline.html
2. ^ http://www.thestar.com/Special/article/190670
3. ^ http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/feature_stories/article_1690.asp?s=1
4. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3276689.stm
5. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4014083.stm
6. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/051215/b121590.html
7. ^ Paul Waldie. "Black looking confident as trial begins", Globe and Mail, CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc., 2007-03-14. Retrieved on March 14, 2007.
8. ^ "His trial looming, Black hit the book-promo ciruit" Globe and Mail: March 24, 2007. R1.

• [4] Guardian Unlimited Special Report - Conrad Black, Hollinger and the Telegraph - Ongoing archive collection of news and analysis.
• [5] SEC - Breeden Report - Complete 512-page copy of the Report of Investigation by the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Hollinger International Inc.
• [6] - Black fired, faces $200M lawsuit. In 2004 Black faced a number of law suits from investors and others claiming highly inappropriate financial dealings as well as audit fraud concerning circulation at his papers.
• Devin Leonard. "Black & Blue: Shareholders are beating up Hollinger CEO Conrad Black over his huge, tricky pay packages. He calls them 'governance terrorists'". Fortune. 29 September 2003.
• [7]) - News release from the Privy Council of Canada on the lawsuit filed against Jean Chrétien by Conrad Black.

[edit] External links

• Conrad Black profile from NNCB
• Barbara Amiel profile from NNDB
• Conrad Black profile from RightWeb
• Conrad Black profile from SourceWatch
• Conrad Black Settles Libel Suit with Author The Book Standard, January 18, 2006, suit from November 2005 against Peter C. Newman, author and former editor in chief of the Canadian newsweekly Maclean's.
• Lord Black of Crossharbour: The Life and Times of Conrad Black CBC, documentary originally aired March 24, 2005
• Conrad Black and the Corruption of Empire, Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com, November 21, 2003
• The Ascendancy of Conrad Black Barbara Leiterman, Fair.org, November/December 1996

Racketeering Charges and Trial

• Conrad Black from CBC.ca, ongoing news and commentary
• Conrad Black on Trial from Chicago Sun-Times. ongoing news and commentary from one of the newspapers Hollinger owned
• Conrad Black Racketeering Trial from Guardian Unlimited, ongoing news and commentary
• The United States vs. Conrad Black: The Complete Trial Guide and History from Maclean's, ongoing news and commentary
• Conrad M. Black from The New York Times, ongoing news and commentary
• The Extravagant Fall of Conrad Black Adam Smith, Time, March 14, 2007
• Why Conrad Black is in the dock BBC, March 13, 2007
• Canadians and Conrad Black Angus Reid Strategies, March 7, 2007, national poll
• Conrad Black charged with racketeering and obstruction of justice, CBC, December 15, 2005
• Conrad Black charged with 8 counts of fraud CBC, November 17, 2005
• Conrad Black's right-hand man pleads guilty to fraud David Teather from The Guardian, CorpWatch, September 21, 2005
• Coalition video located on google.com Michael Chessman of Euro British Coalition offers video defence statement in support of Lord Conrad Black
• Class War in Conrad's Court from The Nation, March 22, 2007