Conrad Black, having been freed from jail in the United States and deported to Canada, is now fighting to stay in the country of his birth.
He finds himself as the target of several Canadian politicians who would prefer that he was not around.
The pugnacious former Telegraph owner is particularly exercised by claims that he asked for help to obtain his one-year temporary visa from the current government, led by Stephen Harper.
He called the accusation - by Thomas Mulcair, the leader of the main opposition party, New Democratic Party - "demagogic rabble-rousing".
Lord Black, who gave up his Canadian citizenship to obtain a British peerage, entered Canada on 4 May after being released from a Florida prison, where he served a 42-month sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice.
But he is still maintaining his innocence. In a CBC television interview he said he was unjustly convicted. "I was shafted," he said. "Keep in mind, I won 99% of this case."
He said he was worried that Mulcair's attack on his temporary-resident permit might result in the Harper government rescinding it.
"I deliberately had absolutely no contact direct or indirect with anyone," Black said.
Black, renowned for his turns of phrase, also said he would like to move beyond his conviction rather than being "stigmatised for life, like a medieval leper, with bells on my head to warn the unsuspecting of the approach of moral taint and turpitude."
Black was coy about his future interests, beyond writing. "There's some interesting prospects," he said. "But since they're not public companies I don't talk about them."
Source: Globe & Mail
