Supreme Court to hear Conrad Black libel suit appeal

The Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal by a group of former Hollinger International Inc. executives who want half a dozen libel lawsuits filed by Conrad Black to be blocked from proceeding in Ontario. Canada’s top court will hear arguments on March 22 from Richard Breeden and a group of former directors of Hollinger International, who were sued by Lord Black after they claimed he operated a “corporate kleptocracy” while he was chief executive of the former Chicago-based newspaper publishing giant. The report was widely distributed in Canada and the United States and became the basis of criminal indictments filed against the Montreal-born businessman in 2005 by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. The Ontario Court of Appeal had ruled in August that the libel lawsuits could proceed in Ontario after a lower court had dismissed attempts by Mr. Breeden, Graham Savage, Gordon Paris, Richard Seitz, James R. Thompson and Richard D. Burt, to have the case tossed out of court in 2009 or at least, moved to the United States.