Only a few hours after Conrad Black was resentenced to 42 months in prison, the original lead prosecutor in the 2007 trial revealed the animating attitude of the judge and the prosecution.

Asked about the dwindling of this case – which at one point included 17 counts, hundreds of millions in theft, money laundering and even racketeering – to one fraud count for $600,000 and the flimsiest of obstruction charges, Eric Sussman had this to say:

“To look at it by counts and money maybe misses some of the point. I think at the beginning of the case the prosecution had a very definite statement, which is that Conrad Black stole money from the shareholders, he lied about it, and he obstructed justice. After everything this case has been through, you are left with the same facts.” Continue reading →

Canada’s participation in the Libyan war was extended by Parliament last week for another few months. Yet serious questions remain about the goals, tactics and morality of our continued participation in that war.

The decision to go to war in Libya was taken in the full flush of the alleged Arab Spring. Protesters had toppled the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, so it was thought that Gaddafi’s remaining time could be measured in days. In the meantime, using NATO forces to protect civilians seemed like an almost humanitarian duty. Alas, it turned out that President Obama and his allies backed the one group of Arab protesters too hapless to pull it off, even with bombing support from NATO air power. The result is a perverse fiasco – Tunisia and Egypt achieved revolutions without foreign help; NATO has gone to war against Gaddafi, but apparently cannot or will not win; meanwhile in Syria the Assad regime slaughters its own with impunity, the Libyan disaster preventing anyone from suggesting that anything be done in Syria. Continue reading →