Baron Black of Crossharbour: Plaguy Proud

"He is so plaguy proud that the death-tokens of it
Cry 'No recovery.'" ~ from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida

There's more to Canada than Nickelback and tar sands. With bloviating pomposities like former citizen Baron Black of Crossharbour (né Conrad Moffat Black) sprouting from our soil, Canada has so much more to offer.

His interview today with Stephen Sackur on the BBC's Hardtalk was truly a sight to behold. The Baron shared that he never once scrubbed a toilet while wallowing in the poky, only a shower stall. It was the closest I've come in a while to what Jon Stewart calls a "Schadenfreude-gasm."

(Mugshot from 2007)

The Baron's Order of Canada, awarded in 1990, currently hangs in the balance. Based on the self-pitying audacity on display in the Hardtalk interview, Canada should get down on bended knee and award him another. It was quite the performance. As the CBC reports today:

Former media baron Conrad Black's request to Federal Court for a hearing before a panel examining whether he should be allowed to remain an officer of the Order of Canada has been rejected.

Black was found guilty by a U.S. jury in 2007 of three counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice, but he was acquitted on nine other charges, including mail fraud, wire fraud, racketeering and tax fraud.

An Appeals Court later overturned two of his fraud convictions, but allowed a single fraud conviction and the obstruction of justice conviction to stand.

How the mighty have fallen. The Hardtalk episode isn't online yet, but this one with Jeremy Paxman from a few days ago in which he exclaims to the Baron's face, "You're a criminal!" will suffice.