Fallen press baron Conrad Black: a Canadian neocon

Black and three of his former Hollinger associates-chief financial officer John A. Boultbee; former vice president Peter Y. Atkinson; and the company's former lawyer, Mark S. Kipnis-were convicted of skimming money from the sale of the assets of Hollinger International, now called the Sun-Times Media Group. In addition to his prison sentence and fines, he still faces more than $1 billion in civil litigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission and others, not to mention tens of millions of dollars in legal fees. Noting that the Canadian history magazine The Beaver is running a contest to name "the worst Canadian ever," Ferguson points out that Black, "having forsaken his own country and been convicted of swindling his shareholders, is one of the top nominees."