Black pardon draws reaction
Re: Trump pardons Black, May 16
Congratulations Mr. Black. Your pardon was long overdue. We admire you and enjoy your command of English and your articles. You truly took a terrible situation like a mensch (man) and did such good work.
Perhaps your business part is filled with some business indiscretions, but these were not criminal and your trial and conviction in Chicago was wrong based on the evidence. David & Emma Tsimerman, Toronto President Trump’s pardon of our passportless citizen Conrad Black is a welcome act of reinstatement of one of our most respected public figures.
Coincidently we have been witness to the wrongful political railroading of Admiral Mark Norman but sadly it has none of the finality of justice served as in the case of Black.
It will be to the everlasting shame of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau if the slates of these two worthies are not immediately and fully cleansed. Russell Thompson, Victoria, B. C. Many of us who are loyal followers of Lord Black’s columns would count ourselves among his “friends” for whom “no explanation was ever necessary” regarding the sad saga that transpired south of the border.
Suffice it to say, it is highly significant, but hardly surprising, that he has been fully exonerated with a well- deserved full pardon from the United States.
To his credit, President Trump has demonstrated great perspicacity in recognizing the injustice that was suffered by Lord Black. While nothing can restore time lost, it is clear that the world now knows what his loyal readers always did — that he is a gentleman of enormous talent, a man of letters and a creator of financial and literary empires. Susan K. Riggs, Toronto Mark Twain dreamt he was a knight, which resulted in the book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Conrad Black gave up his Canadian citizenship, was knighted and wound up being tried in an American court.
Count me amongst those who believe Black was a victim of overzealous prosecutors, contumacious judges, and mail fraud statutes egregiously misapplied by both. But to try his attorney Edward Greenspan posthumously in his newspaper of predilection is unpardonable. Black selected a Canadian attorney to represent him in an American court to make a statement. It was calculated and it backfired. But it does tell us that being Canadian meant something to him. Howard Greenfield, Montreal May I remind Mr. Black that a presidential pardon is not an acquittal. Brian Caines, Ottawa