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Conrad Black exits an Ontario Securities Commission hearing in Toronto on Monday Oct. 6, 2014.AARON VINCENT ELKAIM/The Globe and Mail

Conrad Black should be allowed to testify before the Ontario Securities Commission about what really happened at Hollinger Inc. to show he represents no risk to Ontario's capital markets, his lawyer told a hearing panel Monday.

The OSC launched its long-delayed hearing Monday to determine whether to impose penalties on Mr. Black for his involvement in authorizing what it called "contrived" non-competition payments for himself and other executives of Hollinger, the newspaper company he helped found in 1995.

The commission is seeking to ban Mr. Black, 70, from serving as a director or officer of a public company in Ontario or working for a registered financial company. It could also order him to pay a fine or repay OSC hearing costs.

Before the hearing could begin in earnest, however, OSC lawyers asked commissioners to put a halt to plans by Mr. Black's legal team to call a variety of witnesses and hear testimony from Mr. Black about events at Hollinger.

OSC lawyer Jed Friedman said much of the evidence being proposed by Mr. Black is irrelevant to the hearing, has already been heard in U.S. criminal proceedings and should not be repeated, and was previously ruled inadmissible by an OSC panel earlier this year.

"If it all seems like déjà vu all over again, it is," Mr. Friedman said. "Now Mr. Black is putting forward much of the same evidence again and wants to relitigate. Mr. Black wants a do-over."

The commission announced its case against Mr. Black in 2005, but it was adjourned pending the outcome of his U.S. criminal trial and subsequent appeals. The OSC reactivated the stalled case in 2013 when it filed a simplified statement of allegations against Mr. Black and other former Hollinger officials, arguing that they should be disciplined in Ontario on the basis of their U.S. convictions.

Mr. Black filed a motion earlier this year asking the OSC to stay its case, arguing the hearing was unnecessary and even an abuse of legal process. The motion was rejected, allowing the hearing to begin Monday. The panel ruled at the time that the OSC has the right to rely on Mr. Black's convictions in the U.S. as the basis for its case and did not have to let Mr. Black challenge the original evidence and present new evidence about the fraud.

Since then, however, Mr. Black's legal team has disclosed it plans to call several witnesses, including Mr. Black's former secretary Joan Maida, who testified at his original trial, as well as former Hollinger director Don Vale and lawyer Ronald Safer, who represented another Hollinger executive at the trial. Mr. Black wants to testify himself about the early days of Hollinger, compensation and corporate governance at the company, his role in authorizing non-competition payments at Hollinger and other issues relating to his convictions.

Lawyer Peter Howard, who is representing Mr. Black, told the hearing panel Monday that he plans to demonstrate that Mr. Black poses no threat to Ontario's capital markets and would never repeat the actions that led to his convictions. He said he wants to ask Mr. Black about other non-competition payments that did not lead to charges or convictions in the United States to show his case resulted from an isolated incident.

"We are entitled to prove to you that the convictions are isolated and the exceptions, not the rule," Mr. Howard said.

Mr. Howard added that it is "Cloud Cuckoo Land" to think Mr. Black would ever do the same things again or presents any risk to investors.

The hearing panel said it hopes to rule Wednesday morning on the evidence dispute and allow the hearing to proceed that day.

The hearing also includes allegations against former Hollinger executive John Boultbee, who participated Monday by conference call from Victoria. He wants his case heard separately from Mr. Black's, saying he cannot afford to travel from B.C. for a lengthy hearing dealing mostly with Mr. Black's issues.

The hearing panel will rule Wednesday on his request.

Mr. Black was convicted in 2007 of three counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice, but later had two of the fraud counts overturned on appeal. He served 37 months in U.S. prison and was released in 2012, when he returned to Canada.

The OSC previously reached a settlement with former Hollinger executives David Radler in 2012 and Peter Atkinson in 2013. Both men agreed to lifetime bans from serving as a director or officer of a public company in Ontario and from working as registrants in the financial industry, or as employees of financial companies that are registrants in Ontario.

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