Black and Toronto Life settle: report

Last Updated: Thursday, February 24, 2005 | 6:00 PM ET

CBC Arts

Conrad Black has dropped his $2.1-million defamation lawsuit against Toronto Life, settling for an apology in the February issue of the lifestyle magazine.

Black's September 2004 suit alleged that a satirical story in the July issue of the magazine depicted him as "so irredeemably evil that he should be consigned to Hell."

• RELATED STORY: Conrad Black sues Toronto Life

Conrad Black

Lawyers for Black and Toronto Life confirmed the lawsuit had been settled. Toronto Life editor John Macfarlane said the magazine didn't pay Black as a result of the settlement, the Toronto Star reported Thursday.

The embattled media baron had demanded $2 million for general and aggravated damages for defamation and $100,000 in punitive damages. The suit named the article's London-based Canadian writer, Robert Mason Lee, and its illustrator, Barry Blitt.

Black alleged that the Toronto Life article and illustration brought him "into hatred, ridicule and contempt," and suggested his conversion to Roman Catholicism was a "hypocritical sham."

Black is currently embroiled in a series of unrelated court and regulatory proceedings related to his financial dealings at Hollinger, the newspaper conglomerate he formerly controlled.

Toronto Life's one-paragraph apology made specific reference only to the religious part of Black's complaint:

"Toronto Life did not intend in this article and illustration to question Lord Black's observance of the Roman Catholic faith. Toronto Life accepts and recognizes without reservation or qualification that Lord Black is an observant Roman Catholic. Toronto Life apologizes to Lord Black for the pain that the article and illustration have caused him," the apology said.