Meet Lord Black, Convicted Felon

Conrad. The name suits him well.

Via the NYT:

Conrad M. Black, the gregarious press tycoon also known as Lord Black of Crossharbour, was found guilty today by a Chicago jury of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. He could face up to 35 years in prison.

"Gregarious" wouldn't exactly be my adjective of choice to describe him.

Mr. Black was cleared of nine other counts against him, including racketeering. He is expected to appeal and the judge presiding over the case, Amy J. St. Eve, is expected to allow him to remain free on bail during that process. Three former associates were each found guilty of three counts of mail fraud.

I thought it was quite something - although it shouldn't have come as a surprise - that Connie was trying to get his Canadian citizenship reinstated so he could do his time here. I guess the price of arrogantly pursuing lordship by giving the middle finger to Canada thus risking having to spend time in some American white collar crowbar hotel was just a bit too high for him all of a sudden.

And he has even more legal problems to face:

In addition to his potential incarceration, Mr. Black also faces more than $1 billion in civil litigation from former shareholders of Hollinger International, the company itself and the S.E.C.

May he gregariously be locked up in jail and litigation for a very long time.
 

Conrad Black's Jury Deadlocked

But, the judge has sent the jurors back for more deliberations.

Judge Amy St. Eve of the U.S. District Court repeated a section of her original jury instructions. The jury of 12 men and women were handed the case on June 27 after nearly 15 weeks of testimony.S. District Court repeated a section of her original jury instructions.

The National Post has more:

"We have discussed and deliberated on all the evidence and are still unable to reach a unanimous verdict on one or more counts," the jury said in a note read by Judge Amy St. Eve. The note went on to say that they had read the jury instructions carefully.

Judge St. Eve decided not to accept a partial verdict at this time.
[...]
The jury is its ninth day of deliberations on the fate of Lord Black and three co-defendants, all former executives with Hollinger International Inc. They face a combined total of 42 counts, mainly wire, mail and tax fraud.

His royal lordness isn't walking away from all of this quite yet. I say stick him in the castle tower and throw away the key.
 

Tories Behaving Badly - Again

- Will the real Rahim Jaffer please stand up? - redux:

Ottawa — A red-faced Tory MP is apologizing after his assistant impersonated him — and provided false information — in an e-mail exchange with a constituent over the hot-button issue of Afghan detainees.

An e-mail from Gord Brown's parliamentary office, dated May 2, claimed that every alleged case of abuse involving Afghan detainees had been investigated and proven to be unfounded. That despite the fact the Afghan government has yet to finish an investigation into the torture claims.

The e-mail to Randi Davidson, obtained by The Canadian Press, was signed by Mr. Brown, the member for Leeds-Grenville. But Mr. Brown says the note was written by his assistant, Mark King, without his knowledge.

“Those are not my views. They don't reflect my view. That staff member has been reprimanded for sending that out,” Brown said in an interview.

“He shouldn't have sent it out to begin with and he shouldn't have sent it out with my name it on. I'm not very happy about it.”

- Oh, they pretend to be "tightening the screws" on political loans but:

The bill seems equally aimed at embarrassing the Liberals, with Mr. Van Loan and Ottawa Tory MP Pierre Poilievre repeatedly taking shots at last year's Grit leadership race in which contestants relied heavily on loans to pay for their campaigns.

Mr. Poilievre noted that the winner, Stéphane Dion, received loans from wealthy supporters amounting to almost $500,000, as did runner-up Michael Ignatieff.

“Who owns the Liberal party?” he asked.

But the Tories were not inclined to discuss who “owns” Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has never fully disclosed the donors to his 2002 campaign for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance, predecessor to the Conservative party.

Mr. Harper disclosed only 54 donors who'd contributed more than $1,075 each to his campaign. He never revealed the names of 10 large donors who wanted to remain anonymous or the more than 9,000 donors who gave less than $1,000.
[...]
The law did not require full disclosure in 2002. Mr. Van Loan dismissed suggestions that Mr. Harper, in keeping with the new spirit of transparency and openness, should belatedly open his campaign books.

- I wonder how many of those anonymous donors were active in Alberta's oil sands sector, which has just been exempted from the Tories' so-called "clean air" plan. Meanwhile, Alberta conservatives are pushing for a $6.2 billion nuclear reactor for the province.

However, the Alberta Liberals said they're skeptical about nuclear power in Alberta, while environmental groups are fiercely opposed to it, suggesting it's downright radioactive.

"It looks more and more like the Tory government has let the nuclear genie out of the bottle without ever consulting with Albertans," said Liberal Leader Kevin Taft.

Officials with the Pembina Institute, an environmental think-tank, argue concerns about how to dispose of nuclear waste outweigh the potential benefits of a reactor, such as an increased electricity supply and a reduction in greenhouse gases emitted, compared to coal-fired plants.

- Pollution, nuclear waste, why not add increased levels of pesticide to our food too?

Better break out the veggie-scrubbers: Canada is set to raise its limits on pesticide residues on fruit and vegetables for hundreds of products.

The move is part of an effort to harmonize Canadian pesticide rules with those of the United States, which allows higher residue levels for 40 per cent of the pesticides it regulates.

"Harmonize", my ass. It's called "pandering".

- James Travers has some advice for the "new" government: It is not in our interest to allow the military to become synonymous with Canada. The problem with that is the fact that conservatives actually measure Canada's standing in the world by its military involvement and the praise received from other conservative governments and right-wing organizations according to our participation in military pursuits. Good advice Travers, but don't expect Steve et al to listen.

- Tories cut peacekeeping centre funding:

OTTAWA — The Tory government will no longer pay for soldiers from around the world to train in peacekeeping at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in the Annapolis Valley.

Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor’s office did not return calls Monday afternoon to explain why it is cutting the program.

For the past two years, the Defence Department has paid for groups of 30 soldiers to train in peacekeeping in the United Nations Integrated Missions Staff Officers Course at the Cornwallis centre.

Dirty pool?

Defence’s decision comes five months after what appeared to have been a series of department leaks to the Ottawa Citizen trying to discredit the Cornwallis centre. At the time, West Nova Liberal MP Robert Thibault predicted trouble.

"I’m fearful that there might be some ploy within the Department of Defence to leak stuff like that and then to refuse their funding," he said. "The reports I get when I talk to people around Ottawa is that the other departments are ready to fund it . . . but that (Defence) has been balking."

- Conrad Black behaving badly. Ongoing.
 

Quote du Jour: Things That Make Conrad Black Happy

Via Naomi Klein's Class War in Conrad's Court:

During the jury selection process at the Conrad Black fraud trial in Chicago, the judge polled potential jurors on their impressions of Black's home, Canada. "Socialist country," one replied. According to press accounts, Black, once the third-most-powerful press baron in the world, turned to his wife, Barbara Amiel, and they shared a smile. At last, a juror after their own hearts--the couple had been redbaiting Canadians for years.

It doesn't look like that attitude is going to help him much though.

Poor Little Lord of Blackness. Justice is so unfair:

Regardless of what else happens in the Black saga, the jury-selection process has already provided an extraordinary window onto the way regular Americans, randomly selected, view their elites--not as heroes but as thieves. As far as Black is concerned, this is all terribly unfair--he is being "thrown to the mobs" because of rage at the system and, unlike American billionaires, he doesn't "dress in corduroy trousers" or donate his fortune to AIDS charities. Black's lawyers even argued (unsuccessfully) that their client could not get a fair trial because the average Chicagoan "does not reside in more than one residence, employ servants or a chauffeur, enjoy lavish furniture, or host expensive parties."

h/t arcturus
 

Conrad Black & Barbara Amiel Behaving Very Badly

Oh Lord (Black), it's hard to be humble:

The most passionate opening argument took place outside the courtroom as the Conrad Black trial began yesterday.

Barbara Amiel, the wife of the fallen newspaper tycoon, lashed out at journalists covering her husband's trial for an alleged $84m (£43.2m) fraud. The former columnist, whose lavish spending habits will form a significant part of the prosecution case, called the media "vermin" and described a Canadian television producer as a "slut".

Forced to travel from the courtroom in a lift packed with journalists, Lady Black said: "You journalists are vermin. I used to be a journalist and I didn't doorstep people and I didn't hold my nose in the elevator."

It was a producer from the Canadian television broadcaster CBC who appeared to trigger the tirade. Lady Black shouted at her "you slut". Alana Black, who is Lord Black's daughter from his first marriage, giggled during the incident.

Lady Black later admitted to friends that she had "lost her cool". Her husband had been no less combative on his way into court. "You look like a Vietnam protester," he said to a journalist who was queuing for one of the few spaces available for the press.

Maybe they should get their maid to fetch them some tea and crumpets to help them deal with their rather traumatic outing. My goodness! To be surrounded by mere commoners like that who no doubt probably almost touched them. Tsk, tsk. Can you blame them for being just a tad annoyed? Ah, the trials and tribulations of the rich. How they suffer. It's a travesty, really.