General

Conrad Black will be heading back to Canada on a one-year permit

Conrad Black will be heading back to his native Canada after he finishes serving his U.S. prison sentence next weekend even though he no longer is a Canadian citizen, the Globe and Mailreports. The former head of Hollinger International and owner of Canada’s Southam media company, now Postmedia, applied for and received a one-year temporary resident permit that expires in early May, 2013. In Ottawa, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney declined to comment on the case during question period, saying that he has removed himself from any proceedings involving Black, and adding that “Matters such as this are a matter of personal privacy.” NDP Leader Tom Mulcair accused the government of using a “double standard” in deciding whether Canada should admit foreign citizens with a criminal record, the CBC reports. The opposition leader pointed to the case of a U.S. citizen who has not been allowed to return to Canada, where he raised a family, after serving 30 days in a U.S. jail in connection to a 1969 police shooting in Chicago. Citizenship and Immigration Canada granted Black a temporary resident permit, because he is believed to pose no threat to the Canadian public, an anonymous source told the Globe.

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