If this happens, I'll eat my shorts

The possibility of the Canadian federal government prosecuting Conrad Black is, to my mind, zero. In the first place, we are generally hopeless at prosecuting white collar crime.

In the second place, if the US convicts we surely won't charge:

"It's pointless to prosecute if they are convicted," said a Toronto-based litigator who asked not to be named. "It's almost a rule of thumb with white-collar cases that whatever the penalty is there [in the U.S.] in years, it would be months in Canada. If someone is going to jail in the U.S. for years, what's the point of prosecuting that person in Canada?"

Added another: "If the Canadian authorities were serious, they'd have stepped up to the plate and asserted themselves earlier."..

In the third place, does anyone believe that, if US attorneys cannot get a conviction, Canadian crown prosecutors can?

Mark C.

Posted by markc at June 3, 2007 10:15 AM