Conrad Black Sent Back To Prison
While disappointing to most who have followed the case, it shouldn’t be surprising that Chicago Judge Amy St. Eve is sending Conrad Black back to prison.
She’s a tough cookie, a former prosecutor herself, and Chicago has a reputation of ungenerosity towards those who challenge its justice system.
As it is, Judge Amy reduced Conrad’s original six-and-a-half year sentence by three years – sending him back to the slammer for 42 months, less the 29 he’d already served prior to the Supreme Court sending three of his four conviction back for review. That means another 12 months for Conrad.
That the judge’s ruling was something of a surprise is evident in that his wife, Barbara Amiel, apparently collapsed in court at the news. Editor of the Toronto Sun in a former life, Amiel has always been pessimistic about Conrad’s chances, perhaps on the theory that in this life, a pessimist is rarely disappointed.
Still, many outside lawyers -- and some former prosecutors -- who had followed the machinations of the case, were convinced that Judge Amy would take into account the frailty and malevolence of the prosecution’s case, coupled with Black's model behavior in prison, and free him on the basis of time already served.
But she didn’t.
In fact, by her standards she was being generous in committing him to “only” 12 more months in prison, noting in her decision that many inmates had benefited from his tutoring, his modest demeanor, and the fact he donated his prison salary ($18 a month) to buying educational books for the prison library.
Ironically, all Conrad Black’s co-accused in the 2007 trial are now free. His former partner David Radler, who turned against Conrad to save his own skin, is back running newspapers.
In a year’s time, when he is freed, Conrad will probably be deported -- to Britain, unless some arrangement is made whereby as a convicted felon he is allowed to return to Canada. A vindictive Prime Minister Jean Chretien forced Black to renounce his Canadian citizenship in order to become a British baron (of Crossharbour) in 2001.
The original 16 charges against Black, alleging up to $600 million in fraud, eventually boiled down to two conviction involving $600,000 -- neither of which would have been crimes if committed in Canada and not the US.
As far as Canada is concerned, the next move on the part of political foes will likely be to have his Order of Canada rescinded. Already the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation seems to be pushing this, as is the left-of-center New Democratic Party. Four individuals have had their Orders of Canada revoked -- Alan Eagleson in 1998 after a jail term; Aboriginal leader David Ahenakew in 2002 for allegedly making anti-Semetic remarks; lawyer Sher Singh in 2008 for professional misconduct; and Steve Fonyo in 2010 for criminal convictions. Half a dozen others renounced their Orders when abortion proponent Dr. Henry Morgentaler received the award in 2008.
Rescinding the award seems unjust. It is given for outstanding service, and that shouldn’t be tarnished by subsequent behavior.
Those who set the guidelines for the Order of Canada might do well to look at what King George V did in 1920 when he reversed the policy of rescinding the Victoria Cross to recipients who disgraced themselves later. The King’s private secretary Lord Stamfordham noted: "The King feels so strongly that, no matter the crime committed by anyone on whom the VC has been conferred, the decoration should not be forfeited. Even where a VC to be sentenced to be hanged for murder, he should be allowed to wear his VC on the gallows.
Surely, if the Order of Canada is to become anything except a political bauble, King George V’s dictum should apply to it. Meanwhile, Conrad returns to tutoring fellow inmates for another year.