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Conrad Black walks past reporters while arriving for his hearing at the Ontario Securities Commission in Toronto on Friday, October 10, 2014.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press

Conrad Black has offered to voluntarily report to the Ontario Securities Commission before accepting a role as an officer or director of a public company, proposing the idea as an alternative to being permanently banned from holding the positions.

Lawyer Peter Howard, who is representing Mr. Black, told an OSC hearing Tuesday his client should not face penalties in Ontario over his role in a fraud at Hollinger International Inc. because he presents no threat to Ontario's capital markets and would never be in a position to commit the same crime again.

While Mr. Black does not deserve to be banned from serving as a director or officer, Mr. Howard said he would voluntarily commit to giving the OSC advance notice before accepting such a position in the future. Mr. Howard acknowledged such notification could lead to complaints about the appointment.

"You could imagine [OSC] staff's input to the reporting issuer," Mr. Howard said in closing arguments at the conclusion of the OSC's hearing in the case.

Mr. Black testified earlier in October at the hearing, saying he has "absolutely no desire" to be a director or officer of a public company, but said he is fighting the OSC's efforts to ban him because he resents the implication that he is unfit for the job.

The OSC is seeking to ban Mr. Black and former Hollinger executive John Boultbee from serving as directors or officers of public companies in Ontario and from working as registrants in the financial services sector because of their involvement in a fraud at newspaper company and their convictions in U.S. federal court.

The OSC is basing its case on the fact Mr. Black and Mr. Boultbee were convicted criminally in the U.S. for taking what it calls "contrived" non-competition payments from the proceeds of the sale of Hollinger newspapers. Mr. Black was also convicted of obstruction of justice for removing boxes of materials from Hollinger's office in Toronto without authorization.

OSC lawyer Anna Perschy told the hearing Tuesday that the OSC has to maintain high standards of fitness for people who serve as directors or officers of companies, and "it is simply not in the public's interest" to allow people convicted of defrauding a public company to continue holding the same sort of positions in the future.

To allow it would send the message "such people are fit to hold such positions," Ms. Perschy said in an echo of Mr. Black's earlier comment about resenting being seen as unfit for the job.

"It is not too much to expect that officers and directors not defraud the companies they manage," she told the hearing panel, adding investors in a company should not have to "gamble" on whether Mr. Black could reoffend.

Mr. Howard, however, said it is extremely unlikely Mr. Black could ever find himself again in a position where he had the authority to take improper non-competition payments. He added Mr. Black would have to be "bovine obtuse, or insane" to repeat the kind of breach that led to his obstruction of justice conviction in the United States.

It is unfair that staff is saying, "one strike and not only are you out, the game is over," Mr. Howard added.

He said there is also no need for the OSC to penalize Mr. Black further after he served three years in a U.S. prison for his crimes, saying it would amount to "heaping insult upon injury." Any message of general deterrence to others was delivered already by his criminal conviction, Mr. Howard said.

"Even a fraction of his ordeal is general deterrence, so that's been addressed," he said.

OSC commissioner Christopher Portner, who is heading the hearing panel, asked why the OSC is additionally seeking a ban on Mr. Black's ability to trade securities in Ontario when his crimes were not related to trading securities.

Ms. Perschy did not provide a detailed response, simply saying OSC staff felt a trading ban was appropriate because of the nature of the case. She said the director and officer bans are more important to OSC staff.

The OSC previously reached settlements with former Hollinger executives David Radler in 2012 and Peter Atkinson in 2013. Both agreed to lifetime bans from serving as directors or officers of public companies or as employees of financial companies.

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