The first witness of the prosecution is Gordon Paris, current CEO of Sun Times group (formerly Hollinger Intl), who replaced Black in late 2003.

The cross examination by Ed Greenspan, the most famous lawyer in Canada and longtime consigliere to Lord Black was, to but it mildly, combative.

Amazingly, the former investment banker was ushered into the top role of Hollinger by Richard Breeden (truly the Darth Vader of this imbroglio, much more on him later), having utterly no newspaper experience. To add further insult to the ?sacred stockholders? Breeden and his cabal so pretentiously claimed to represent, they paid Paris over $500,000 for 6 weeks of work as CEO in 2003.

We Chicagoans used to embrace the Sun Times as a perfect foil to the Tribune, the former a working man?s rag with terrific sports, local focus, and - at least under Murdoch and Black - a generally right wing perspective.

But predictably, the Sun Times Group has languished ever since the Paris takeover. With a pin-headed investment banker running the shop, the paper has devolved into a paper-ized heap of milquetoast, with the financial and share performance to match!