Leonard Asper is leaving Canwest Global Communications. The resignation was announced in a news release on the Canwest website:

Canwest Global Communications Corp (“Canwest” or the “Company”) announced today that Mr Leonard Asper has tendered his resignation as President and Chief Executive Officer and all other director and officer positions with Canwest and its subsidiaries in order to pursue other business opportunities and to avoid any concerns regarding potential conflicts of interest.

Mr. Asper will continue to provide the Company with advice through a consulting agreement until such time that Canwest emerges from CCAA protection.

The release also said Asper's positions will not be filled, "given the Company’s court-supervised restructuring which commenced in October 2009, and the Company’s newspaper and online publishing group pursuing a separate court-supervised financial restructuring plan, which commenced in January."

"I would like to thank Leonard for his years of dedicated leadership and unwavering commitment to Canwest," said Derek Burney, Canwest’s Chairman of the Board. "His vision and determination over the last decade has been instrumental in shaping the Canadian media landscape."

Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.