A solution for Bill C-48

The Senate’s wise decision to reject Bill C-48 in its current form gives Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a fleeting opportunity to alleviate the politically/geographically divisive and economy ruinous damage done to Canadian unity by his single- minded evisceration of the economically beneficial western Canadian resource industry. All he need do is to amend the bill to permit ocean going oil tanker traffic from Prince Rupert to the open Pacific via the Dixon Entrance while staying clear of the Hecate Strait.

Since the boundaries of the Dixon Entrance are in dispute with the U. S. this routing should be acceptable to them. It will also be necessary for the PM to obtain the co- operation of en-route Aboriginal groups to the land route to Prince Rupert. This will have little bearing on Canada’s Climate Change targets since the PM is, or was, a rabid backer of two of Canada’s major creators of Greenhouse Gas emissions (GGEs) in Bombardier and SNCLavalin and a champion of Canadian engine manufacturers who convert enormous quantities of imported unregulated foreign oil into GGEs.

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. 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. 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.

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.

May I remind Mr. Black that a presidential pardon is not an acquittal.