The Verdict: Re-Visit Of Bora Bora

Tonight's episode of The Verdict was, as customary for Sundays, a re-cap issue. This week, the segment on the Bora Bora trip was highlighted: you'll find a write-up on it here.

As is also customary, this episode of The Verdict should be available in broadband as of 11:30 PM or so, until it is replaced by the next one.

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Here's a trivia item with regard to the 1986 Dominion Stores pension scandal, brought up by Sid Ryan in his March 24th column. As noted near the bottom of this entry, Mr. Black had gotten in serious trouble, with respect to the civil law, for treating the Dominion Stores employees' pension fund as a "pay as you go" system by withdrawing a surplus from it. This withdrawal was part of legal, and not that abnormal, business practice at the time in Ontario (but not shortly thereafter.) Six years beforehand, according to this quote from Peter C. Newman's The Establishment Man, p. 163:

When [Financial Times reporter Deborah McGregor] asked about a rumour that [then-]Argus-owned Dominion stores was about to sell off its Quebec stores and funnel the proceeds into cash-starved Massey [as it was back in 1980], Black shot back, "That's absolute horseshit. It's hysterical to suggest that we would steal money from Dominion and hurl it at Massey."

Words that came back to haunt? It's hard to say. At the time he issued that quote, Mr. Black was lobbying for a government bailout of Massey-Ferguson, with Argus also kicking in some cash provided that the bailout was effected by the federal government.