Conrad Black’s public re-emergence seems defiant, unapologetic

Conrad Black's re-entry into Canadian society looks as precisely planned as a space-shuttle landing in Florida.

First came the remarkably smooth egress from a U.S. federal prison on May 4: after serving more than three years for fraud, Black was delivered straight to the airport to hop a plane to Toronto.

Speculation that his felony conviction and renunciation of his Canadian citizenship would keep the door to Canada closed, for a while at least, turned out to be wildly wrong. Immigration officials approved a one-year residency permit well in time, allowing an immediate return to the family manse on Toronto's exclusive Bridle Path neighbourhood.

Now, after some restorative seclusion, Black has started re-emerging as a public man, giving a lengthy interview to CBC News anchor Peter Mansbridge.

A read through the interview transcript shows Lord Black of Crossharbour has lost none of his, what's the word, certainty about things. He's defiant and unapologetic.

He maintains he was railroaded in the "corrupt" U.S. court system, which nonetheless threw out all but a couple of the counts he was originally charged with. He plans to fight to overturn those, despite the case already having gone to the U.S. Supreme Court. And if that fails, he holds out hope for a pardon if the Republicans return to power.

And given the injustice done to him, Black wants to enlist Canadians' cynicism about the U.S. justice system to help his bid to regain his citizenship.

Black turned his back on Canada in 2001 after losing a battle with former Liberal Prime Minister Jean (the little guy from Shawinigan) Chrétien, who blocked his bid to accept a British peerage. He told Mansbridge he'll consider applying for citizenship in a year or two, once controversy over his return has died down.

Black reserved his haughtiest disdain for NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, who called him a "British criminal" in the Commons as he blasted the decision to issue Black a temporary residence permit.

"Ah pretty shabby demagogue, you know?" Black told Mansbridge.

"I remember [former NDP leaders] Tommy Douglas and Dave Lewis and Ed Broadbent and Audrey McLaughlin. They never would have done anything like that."

"I would have thought the highest tradition of the NDP, and the CCF before it, was a certain reticence about automatically accepting the notorious vagaries of American justice. Mulcair has absolutely no business assuming that I'm a criminal, given how totally discredited the case was."

He decried the "constant sadistic reference" to his conviction and insisted he got no high-level political help to grease his return to Canada.

The National Post, the newspaper Black founded in 1998 where he still publishes a column, welcomed the former proprietor home.

Not surprising, the paper's editorial board conceded. Here's what they had to say: "No less a lefty than Margaret Atwood recently praised Mr. Black for his road-to-Damascus conversion to the cause of prison reform. On Bay Street, as well, some of the same people who cackled with shadenfreude when Mr. Black was sent to prison, are now queuing up for dinner-party invitations."

The warmest welcome home came from his devoted wife, journalist Barbara Amiel. In an essay in the latest issue of Maclean's, she writes about Black's last-minute worries that the government might snatch back his temporary permit.

Upon arrival, his first words to her were: "My brave sweet duck, the night is over."

Public reaction to Black's choreographed emergence seems mixed. On Twitter, Del Chatterson observed: "Conrad Black learned while in prison, but not humility or regret. Still doesn't care if we like him or not and will say what he thinks!"

"Conrad Black says it is 'un-Canadian' to repeatedly bring up his conviction," tweeted Steve Patterson. "Yes. Almost as un-Canadian as renouncing your citizenship."

Black's fervent critics will never accept that he can make valuable contributions to Canadian society, the Post editorial noted.

"They will continue running around in those little circles, bewildered by the extraordinary turnabout in the fortunes of a man they'd believed to have been seen off into obscurity."

Unapologetic