As a rule, I am not impressed with others who continually name-drop ...I view it as showing their insecurity. I will though make an exception in my Blog today, and the exception pertains to my wife Anne and me.
A week and a half ago, we both had dinner with Lord Black ...a most enjoyable affair but also one of the most expensive dinners we ever had the privilege of attending.
The cost though was immaterial since I have always liked Conrad Black and in my opinion and in the opinion of many, many others, Lord Black has a command of the English language that rivals the great Winston Spencer Churchill himself.
I am writing today about Lord Black, not because of the dinner but because mere days later, President Donald Trump called him to offer a Pardon for the inexcusable way in which Black was railroaded into spend 3 years in an American Prison. America by the way has more prisoners per square inch than any other country on earth. Just ask Martha Stewart who too was locked up for ....lying to the cops. Does it get any more serious than that.
Our criminal system has a well deserved reputation for being to lenient...America for being too ruthless. Here in Canada, the prosecution is bound by law to see justice done even if that means letting a defendant off or giving a slap on the wrist where it is truly warranted. Let me go off topic to give you a good example. A farmer appeared in this weekend's papers for having killed his young son who fell off a piece of equipment the father was driving. He has been charged with the very serious offence of criminal negligence causing death. How I ask you can he be charged with anything given that he accepted from the get go that he is responsible for the death of his son and he will have to live with that each and every day of the remainder of his life. Is that not punishment enough? Of course it is.
The US views the judicial system as a challenge - how many convictions can they get and the prosecutors ride to power on the backs of conviction rates well into the 90 percentile. The more the charges are Trumped up...pardon my pun, the happier they are.
That said, I am not going to get into the merits of what took place leading up to the charges against Black since in his own words, 'if you believe he was falsely charged, you need no further proof and if you believe he got his just desserts, no proof to the contrary will convince you otherwise'.
What all of us should though agree upon is that Lord Black took his unjust punishment...like a Man. When in jail and when others in his position would wail and moan about the injustice of it all, or write books telling what a raw deal he got, Black went to work teaching and helping his fellow inmates to enable them to attain their high-school diplomas. What class.
At the time of his sentencing my wife and I wrote to the little guy then in the White House requesting a pardon for Lord Black. We did not even receive the courtesy of a reply. Conversely on the few occasions I have written to President Trump I have always received his reply...one of which can be found in one of my earlier Blogs.
In closing I am simply delighted that the President saw fit to pardon a class act like Lord Black. He most certainly deserved it.
As I See It...
K.D. Bell
