TORONTO - The spectacular fall of Lord Conrad Black of Crossharbour from best-selling author, larger-than-life businessman and multi-millionaire media tycoon to convicted felon has made him Canada's 2007 Business Newsmaker of the Year, as chosen in the annual survey by The Canadian Press.
Black's downfall fascinated Canadians, generating impassioned expressions of both support and condemnation as he faced the trial of his lifetime and lost, leaving the 63-year-old British peer to grapple with the daunting prospect of years in prison.
Even with his foot in the jailhouse door, Black vows with characteristic defiance that victory in the case that "began spectacularly and is evolving unusually'' is still within his grasp.
"It is no secret that we expect to win the appeal,'' Black wrote in an e-mail to The Canadian Press.
"So this has gone from an apparent rise-and-fall, commercial corruption case, to a ding-dong legal battle, as we strip away the charges, with a promise of continuing warfare and a spectacular ending.''
The military buff and published historian squared off with four U.S. prosecutors determined to send him to jail for the rest of his natural life, calling him an arrogant thief and a liar.
Black was convicted of three counts of fraud and one of obstruction of justice in a Chicago court and sentenced to six and a half years in jail -- more than twice the sentence handed to David Radler, his longtime partner who agreed to testify for the prosecution.
The jet-setting former press baron once headed one of the world's largest newspaper empires, owned mansions in Toronto, Florida, London and New York and threw lavish parties for some of the world's most powerful people.
Born in Montreal, he gave up his Canadian citizenship in 2001 after a dispute with then-prime minister Jean Chretien over his nomination to Britain's House of Lords.
As the year draws to a close, he finds himself banned from returning to his native country and contemplating an appeal he firmly believes he can win.
"The exposure of the antics of the prosecution and the revelation of the potential of the plea bargain system simply to extort perjury and the efforts of the U.S. prosecutors to strangle the defence with ex parte seizures of my money on the basis of what proved to be false affidavits, have also been an eye-opener to many, even in the U.S.,'' Black wrote.
"This is more drama and a longer-playing and less predictable controversy than most commercial disputes.''
It's the fourth time since 2003 that Montreal-born Black has been voted most newsworthy person in the Canadian business world by broadcast news directors and newspaper and online editors.
There was no contest in the 2007 survey. Black dominated the poll with 101 of 141 votes cast against 18 for runner-up Jim Flaherty, the country's finance minister who was The Canadian Press Business Newsmaker of the Year in 2006.
Others to receive votes included Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams, Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, Royal Bank chief executive Gord Nixon, Bank of Canada governor David Dodge and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool CEO Mayo Schmidt.
In voting for Black, Tracy Gilchrist, managing editor of the Daily Times in Trail, B.C., described him as "Canada's Paris Hilton with a brain.''
"He evokes such emotions in people -- loathing of his arrogance and excesses, admiration for his creative genius and intellect, curiosity for a look at the rich, powerful and famous .... Not to mention that most journalists at Canada's daily newspapers worked for Black at one time or another; and while we toiled away with pittances of salaries and no raise in sight, he was throwing the glamourous Lady Black (a former journalist herself) a 60th birthday party costing $42,000. Disgusting!"
Fred Rinne, managing editor of the Daily Herald-Tribune in Grande Prairie, Alta., wondered if Black's story "might be recognized mostly as a blatant case of navel gazing.
"Black's personality and pomposity was amplified by his root involvement and fundamental control of a major sector of Canada's journalism industry,'' Rinne wrote.
"Notwithstanding the securities-related crimes he has been found guilty of, our nation's journalists, almost en masse, could not get enough retribution in the form of coverage to the max -- almost paparazzi in many respects.''
"Once the 'revenge' hangover disappears, I wonder if all of Canada's credible and objective journalists will feel that this story was afforded a requisite, fair and proportionate amount of coverage and resource allocation or if it was simply a case of feeding frenzy.''
Jeffrey Steinback, the lawyer who represented Black at his sentencing, said what he found most fascinating about Black was the "seeming contradiction between a very staid, conservative and prim and proper man on the one hand and a very witty, self-effacing and down-to-earth individual on the other.''
"People try to pigeonhole him into some convenient category and he just defies that,'' Steinback said.
At the Dec. 10 sentencing, Steinback made an impassioned speech to Judge Amy St. Eve, asking her to consider the kind of person Black really was -- kind, spiritual, loyal and at times tricked by underhanded journalists.
Many of Black's most controversial comments to the press, he argued, stemmed from conversations with reckless journalists who wanted to portray him as a "money-hungry elitist.''
Black's defiance, his unwavering belief in his own innocence, his repeated shots at prosecutors, his unwillingness to accept any responsibility for what they deemed a US$32-million fraud kept him in the news on an almost daily basis throughout and long after his nearly fourth-month trial ended in July.
"He's like nobody else we've ever had in business or politics, there's so many dimensions. He's always surprising you,'' said Peter C. Newman, a Black biographer and author of numerous books on Canada's business establishment.
"Mainly I think it's what he says -- it's bombastic, it's very rude (and) ... not the usual Canadian way. He just says: 'Here I stand, I'm goddamned innocent, and if you don't like it, slop it.'''
The fascination with Black, Newman said, also stems from he calls his "accoutrements.''
"Who else has a wife like Barbara Amiel? Who else has four mansions with 40 rooms and 13 butlers? Who else, on the world stage, has known all of the leaders and entertained them?"
Black was eventually acquitted of what his lawyers described as lifestyle charges, relating to the alleged abuse of company perks, such as having Hollinger pay US$42,000 for his wife's lavish birthday party in New York and using the company jet to fly the couple to French Polynesia on vacation.
Few expect Black to remain silent once the curtain falls on 2007.
Besides his appeal, Black faces several civil suits in the U.S. and Canada and has also promised to write the "authoritative story of these travails.'' He has already published several well-reviewed books, including a recent biography of former U.S president Richard Nixon.
"He'll disappear fairly quickly once he's in jail and the appeal has been dismissed and Barbara has moved on with her life,'' Newman said. "That doesn't mean he's going to keep quiet, because he will try to write and publish from jail, I'm sure, and maybe that will be interesting.
"Who else would you want to read about in the Canadian business establishment?'' he added.
"I write about these guys -- most of them are about as introspective as heavyweight boxers. They're not very interesting, but he is.''
