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A Matter of Principle

A Matter of Principle

by Conrad Black

McClelland & Stewart | June 12, 2012 | Trade Paperback

Based on 5 ratings | Rate this | 1 review
"I never ask for mercy and seek no one''s sympathy. I would never, as was once needlessly feared in this court, be a fugitive from justice in this country, only a seeker of it."
-Conrad Black, in his statement to the court, June 24, 2011

In 1993, Conrad Black was the proprietor of London''s Daily Telegraph and the head of one of the world''s largest newspaper groups. He completed a memoir in 1992, A Life in Progress, and "great prospects beckoned." In 2004, he was fired as chairman of Hollinger International after he and his associates were accused of fraud. Here, for the first time, Black describes his indictment, four-month trial in Chicago, partial conviction, imprisonment, and largely successful appeal.

In this unflinchingly revealing and superbly written memoir, Black writes without reserve about the prosecutors who mounted a campaign to destroy him and the journalists who presumed he was guilty. Fascinating people fill these pages, from prime ministers and presidents to the social, legal, and media elite, among them: Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Jean Chrétien, Rupert Murdoch, Izzy Asper, Richard Perle, Norman Podhoretz, Eddie Greenspan, Alan Dershowitz, and Henry Kissinger.

Woven throughout are Black''s views on big themes: politics, corporate governance, and the U.S. justice system. He is candid about highly personal subjects, including his friendships - with those who have supported and those who have betrayed him - his Roman Catholic faith, and his marriage to Barbara Amiel. And he writes about his complex relations with Canada, Great Britain, and the United States, and in particular the blow he has suffered at the hands of that nation.

In this extraordinary book, Black maintains his innocence and recounts what he describes as "the fight of and for my life." A Matter of Principle is a riveting memoir and a scathing account of a flawed justice system.


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  • 10 months ago
    ‘American style gung-ho backstabbing and betrayal of a Canadian Icon by his own Directors.
    “The business of Government is to keep the Government out of business-that is unless the business needs government aid” (Mark Twain) The publishing empire built by Conrad Black, had become a self-governed Empire unto itself, administered by supposedly Capable and trustworthy Associates, Officers and Directors of the Majority stockholder, by the time Hollinger International came into being. This was very far cry from being a fly by night or seat of your pants enterprise. Their track record attests to their fearless enterprising spirits, longevity and business plans, not least a proud Canadian Enterprise. Unfortunately, where convoluted American businesses are concerned, mankind’s greed takes precedence, especially when it comes to dollars and cents, and completely ignores Nationalities, legality of foreign ownership process, country of origins, integrity, contractual agreements, pride and intentions. Very few, and especially not, foreign owned business concerns, will survive the wrath of the American Justice system seeking a pound of flesh for incompetent American Businesses, if even a comma is out of place. Foreign Executive Management is open to scrutiny by greedy, unrelenting and unscrupulous investigators that will make a Federal case out of everything, from the price of the morning cup of coffee at the office or on a business trip. When push comes to shove the Justice system prevails over everything, American and non-American. It is a credit to Conrad Black that he stood alone to sustain the impact of that system and took the rap of the American Justice System on behalf of his stockholders, Directors, Associates, Partners and Stockholders..., - (unlike the malicious sell-out by his Associates, Directors and Officers who all lacked the intestinal fortitude to hone up to their own raps and, instead made their own deals to save their spoils)..., - He took the rap like a man and dared to fight back on Appeals, despite all adversity, and won back his name, Integrity, credibility, pride and dignity. A true Canadian spirit at work.
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– More About This Product –

A Matter of Principle

A Matter of Principle

by Conrad Black

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From the Publisher

"I never ask for mercy and seek no one''s sympathy. I would never, as was once needlessly feared in this court, be a fugitive from justice in this country, only a seeker of it."
-Conrad Black, in his statement to the court, June 24, 2011

In 1993, Conrad Black was the proprietor of London''s Daily Telegraph and the head of one of the world''s largest newspaper groups. He completed a memoir in 1992, A Life in Progress, and "great prospects beckoned." In 2004, he was fired as chairman of Hollinger International after he and his associates were accused of fraud. Here, for the first time, Black describes his indictment, four-month trial in Chicago, partial conviction, imprisonment, and largely successful appeal.

In this unflinchingly revealing and superbly written memoir, Black writes without reserve about the prosecutors who mounted a campaign to destroy him and the journalists who presumed he was guilty. Fascinating people fill these pages, from prime ministers and presidents to the social, legal, and media elite, among them: Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Jean Chrétien, Rupert Murdoch, Izzy Asper, Richard Perle, Norman Podhoretz, Eddie Greenspan, Alan Dershowitz, and Henry Kissinger.

Woven throughout are Black''s views on big themes: politics, corporate governance, and the U.S. justice system. He is candid about highly personal subjects, including his friendships - with those who have supported and those who have betrayed him - his Roman Catholic faith, and his marriage to Barbara Amiel. And he writes about his complex relations with Canada, Great Britain, and the United States, and in particular the blow he has suffered at the hands of that nation.

In this extraordinary book, Black maintains his innocence and recounts what he describes as "the fight of and for my life." A Matter of Principle is a riveting memoir and a scathing account of a flawed justice system.


From the Hardcover edition.

Format: Trade Paperback

Dimensions: 608 Pages, 5.91 × 8.66 × 1.57 in

Published: June 12, 2012

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Language: English

The following ISBNs are associated with this title:

ISBN - 10: 0771017391

ISBN - 13: 9780771017391

Read from the Book

March 2010: Coleman Federal Correctional Complex, Florida   I sleep in a cubicle that shares a ceiling with sixty other identical spaces, rather like partitions in an office, except that these are painted cinder block and there are no potted plants. At 10:30 p.m., the ceiling lights placed every twenty feet or so go out. The residents turn out their cubicle lights, leaving only an overhead row of red, dimly lit panels, pierced here and there by the beam of portable reading lamps, which enable the readers among us to escape into books, letters, newspapers, snapshots, and tokens and reminders of the world beyond the gates. In the morning, daylight creeps past the condensation generated by the confrontation between the Florida heat and the fierce air conditioning of the Federal Bureau of Prisons into the outside cubicles through narrow rectangular windows grudgingly set in the concrete walls.   Here, we concern ourselves with how many postage stamps (the local currency) are needed to buy an extra notepad. We see and hear the talking heads on television in the activities room or, in my case, read in the newspapers of the steady failures or crises of great institutions: AIG, General Motors, Citigroup, the State of California, the New York Times , the Harvard University Endowment. How could this country have become so incompetent, so stupid, and why was this debacle so unforeseen? The pundits have the usual uninformed answers, not greatly more well thought out, and less e
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From the Critics

"...Authorative and highly readable...."
-Andrew Roberts, The Daily Beast
 
"An enthralling work."
-Fortune
 
"Beautifully chronicled."
-Ottawa Citizen
 
"A gripping account."
-Evening Standard

About the Author

Conrad Black is the author of critically acclaimed biographies of Maurice Duplessis, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon. The former head of the Argus and Hollinger corporate groups and of London''s Telegraph newspapers, Black is also the founder of Canada''s National Post. For some years he has been a columnist there and at the National Review Online (New York). Black has been a member of the British House of Lords since 2001.

In 2005, Black was accused of a total of 17 charges of criminal corporate misconduct in the United States, and prosecutors sought life imprisonment and fines and restitution totalling $140 million. After six years, all the charges were either abandoned, rejected by jurors, or in the case of four convictions, vacated unanimously by the United States Supreme Court. On the original convictions, he was sentenced to imprisonment for 78 months and restitution of $6.1 million. After 29 months in federal prison, he was released on bail, but the appellate panel whose findings had been vacated by the high court restored two counts when the case was remanded back to it. On June 24, 2011, Black was resentenced to a further seven and a half months in prison, which he is serving at time of publication, and 90 per cent of his fine was restored to him. Conrad Black has never ceased to assert his innocence.


From the Hardcover edition.
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