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Conrad Black may not be allowed to enter Canada after he surrendered his passport to a U.S. court, but that didn't stop the disgraced press baron from taking part in a book signing in Toronto on Monday night.

Black was able to bridge the thousands of kilometres and sign copies of his latest book with the LongPen -- a long-distance signing device designed by author Margaret Atwood.

The LongPen, designed by Atwood's Toronto-based company Unotchit, allowed the embattled press baron to get around the long arm of the law and sign copies of "The Invincible Quest: the Life of Richard Milhous Nixon" all without leaving his Florida residence.

Some arrived at Toronto's World Biggest Bookstore on Monday night, in part to see just how Black would pull it off.

"I think his destiny is to overcome all odds -- this is one example of it," said one man.

The LongPen comprises a video screen and digital writing pad at one location and a video screen and automated pen at another.

People placed their books in the device at the Toronto bookstore, while Black wrote his message in an electronic writing tablet in Florida with a magnetic pen.

Once he pushed "send,'' the pen inscribed the book, in real ink, at the other end.

Writing served as distraction

Speaking to fans via video conferencing from a study in his Florida home, Black told his fans that writing kept him busy during his legal battle in Chicago.

"Because of the legal travails that I had, I spent a lot of time intermittently speaking with lawyers,'' Black said.

"You never know exactly when they're going to phone, so I find, it's the absolutely perfect occupation in that kind of a situation, that you are doing something active and absorbing -- and fulfilling as long as you think you've done a reasonable job of it -- and then you're (interrupted) from time to time but you're not sitting there waiting for the phone to ring.''

But he said "there's not any comparison'' between the Watergate tapes that ended Nixon's presidency and the video recording that captured Black removing boxes from his Toronto offices despite a court order to the contrary.

That tape led to a conviction for obstruction of justice -- the most serious of the four charges he was convicted of in July. Black cannot leave the United States according to bail conditions set when he was found guilty of mail fraud and obstruction of justice in July.

"We were moving offices and I installed those cameras and I wanted to be certain that it was seen that there was no possible suggestion of anything underhanded being done," Black told a fan.

"It was quite different.''

On Chretien and citizenship

Black also addressed comments by former prime minister Jean Chretien about the incident that led to his choice to give up his Canadian citizenship.

In a recent memoir, Chretien recounts how Black asked him to drop Canada's objections to him being appointed to Britain's House of Lords.

Chretien says Black proposed that he be appointed to Canada's Senate at the same time, even offering to sit as a Liberal, to get around the rule that a Canadian citizen can't serve in a another country's parliament.

"I haven't seen Jean Chretien's book so I'm a little reluctant to reply to it exactly,'' Black said when asked about the comments by CTV's Seamus O'Regan, who was hosting the event.

"But on that particular point, he told me that I should be seeking to be a senator rather than a peer, and I said: `Well you can be both, you know,' that's what actually happened. On the business of promising to sit as a Liberal, I said I would consider it. At that point the opposition was very fragmented.''

Bruce Walsh, vice-president of marketing and sales for LongPen, said Black's publisher came to him to help with the book tour.

"The two of us worked together and Conrad Black, of course, agreed to do the signing," he said. "It's an opportunity to bring together an author and his fans."

The device was imagined by Atwood as a way to limit the rigours of a book tour.

"A person who cannot be in one place can be there virtually, sign things, talk and interact," she told Â鶹´«Ã½.

Atwood first to get autograph

Fittingly, Atwood was the first to get an autograph for the book, along with about another 100 people, including a nun and a 24-year old accountant wearing a "Conrad will win'' T-shirt.

"There's a great deal of pressure put on her time for publishers who want her to promote," said Walsh. "So this was a solution in which she can actually appear in places without actually getting on an airplane."

Walsh said the device has been used at about 40 events, but interest is expanding.

In August, U.S. author Norman Mailer and Ontario writer Alice Munro used it to appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in Scotland, while staying on this side of the Atlantic.

Neither would have been able to appear at the festival had it not been for the LongPen, Walsh said at the time, noting that Mailer is 84 years old and finds long flights difficult.

Another benefit to the LongPen is the green factor, Walsh said.

The LongPen's makers say the device has already saved more than 40 tonnes of carbon emissions by cutting down on jet-setting.

The company has also been looking for ways to position the LongPen in businesses like banking or real estate, said Walsh.

Walsh said on Monday that audiences have responded well to the machine because the video-conferencing allows for more time to ask the artist questions.

"The other thing that's happening is a robotic arm actually recreating exactly what the author's writing on the book," he said. "It's really fun to watch."

There will be no U.S. book tour leading up to the American release of the biography on Oct. 22, because Black's bail conditions limit his movements within the country to the Chicago area and south Florida.

On July 13, Black and three former Hollinger executives were convicted on three counts of mail fraud. Black was also convicted of tampering with evidence sought by the U.S. government and faces the possibility of life in prison.

A court date for sentencing is set for Nov. 30.

With a report from CTV's John Vennavally-Rao and files from The Canadian Press