Conrad Black

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Lore & Background

Black's father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canadian manufacturing, retail and media businesses through part-ownership of the holding company Ravelston Corporation. In 1978, two years after their father's death, Conrad and his older brother Montegu took majority control of Ravelston. Over the next seven years, Conrad Black sold off most of their non-media holdings to focus on newspaper publishing. He controlled Hollinger International, once the world's third-largest English-language newspaper empire, which published The Daily Telegraph (UK), Chicago Sun-Times (US), The Jerusalem Post (Israel), National Post (Canada), and hundreds of community newspapers in North America, before controversy erupted over the sale of some of the company's assets. Black was granted a life peerage in 2001 and gave up his Canadian citizenship to accept the title in light of the Nickle Resolution, which bans British honours for Canadian citizens. He regained his Canadian citizenship in 2023. In 2007, Black was convicted on four counts of fraud in a United States district court in Chicago. While two of the criminal fraud charges were overturned on appeal, a conviction for felony fraud and obstruction of justice was upheld in 2010 and he was re-sentenced to 42 months in prison and a fine of $125,000. In 2019, President Donald Trump granted him a federal pardon. Black is a longtime columnist and author, and has written a column for the National Post since he founded it in 1998. He has written eleven books, mostly in the fields of Canadian and American history, including biographies of Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis and US presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and Donald Trump, as well as two memoirs. He has also hosted two interview shows on the Canadian cable network VisionTV. A political conservative, he belonged to the UK's Conservative Party, but also has some idiosyncratic views, including his support for Roosevelt's New Deal.

Reader's Guide

Black was born in Montreal, Quebec, to a family originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. His father, George Montegu Black Jr., a chartered accountant, was the president of Canadian Breweries Limited. Black's mother was the former Jean Elizabeth Riley. Black was sent by his father to Upper Canada College, where he was first educated. At age eight, he invested his life savings of $60 in one share of General Motors. Six years later, he was expelled from UCC for selling stolen exam papers. He then attended Trinity College School, where he lasted less than a year, being expelled for insubordinate behaviour. Successfully completing the year as an extramural student, Black transferred to Thornton Hall. He continued his post-secondary education at Carleton University. He attended Osgoode Hall Law School but failed his first year exams. In 1970, he completed a law degree at Université Laval, and in 1973 completed a Master of Arts degree in history at McGill University. Black's first marriage was in 1978 to Joanna Hishon; they had two sons and a daughter, separated in 1991, and divorced in 1992. That same year he married British-born Jewish-Canadian journalist Barbara Amiel. Black was received into the Roman Catholic Church on 18 June 1986 by Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter. In 2001, Black was invested as a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great. He is also a major shareholder in The Catholic Herald, and was the vice-president of Léger's charity from 1972 to 1990. In 1966, Black bought his first newspaper, the Eastern Townships Advertiser. In 1969, the Ravelston Corporation was founded. With David Radler and Peter G. White, Black purchased and operated the Sherbrooke Record. In 1971, the three formed Sterling Newspapers Limited.

Did You Know?

• Black's father died in June 1976, ten days after his wife.
• Black became a director of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in 1977.
• Black's thesis at McGill became the first half of his first book on Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis.
• Black donated copies of Duplessis' papers to McGill, York, and Windsor universities.
• Black has written that his faith helped him endure his imprisonment in the United States.