Conrad Black ousted from Order of Canada
OTTAWA — Conrad Black, who was convicted in the U.S. and served a prison sentence there, has been removed from the Order of Canada effective immediately, the Governor General says.
Black has also been stripped of his honorary position in the Privy Council of Canada, at the recommendation of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The announcement came in a terse release by Gov. Gen. David Johnston late Friday.
A spokeswoman for the Governor General, MariePierre Bélanger, says an advisory council met Friday afternoon to make its recommendation to Johnston.
Council members include Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Wayne Wouters, clerk of the Privy Council, Canada’s top public servant.
Friday’s announcement means Black can no longer attach the initials OC and PC to his name. Bélanger also said Black must return the insignia of the order.
“The insignia of the Order of Canada remain the property of the Order at all times,” she said.
“They are presented i n trust to members of the Order, as a visible sign of their appointment and a mark of esteem. When an appointment ends, whether through death or through an ordinance made by the Governor General, the insignia reverts to the Order.”
Last November, the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed an application by Black to personally address the advisory council. Bélanger said Black was allowed to make written submissions.
The 11-member advisory council reviewed Black’s membership in the order fol- lowing his 2007 convictions for fraud and obstruction of justice in the United States. Black was given Canada’s highest honour in 1990.
Five other Canadians — Alan Eagleson, David Ahenakew, T. Sher Singh, Stephen Fonyo Jr. and Garth Drab- insky — have been stripped of the Order of Canada. The Governor General’s office said the decisions in these cases were based on various reasons, including being convicted of a criminal offence, committing actions not befitting of the honour, or being fined or reprimanded by a professional organization or association.
Black has been involved in a string of legal battles related to his U.S. convictions on fraud and obstruction of justice charges when he was the head of the Hollinger newspaper business.
He has argued that the U.S. case against him was the result of an unfair prosecution, pointing to the fact that an appeals court later tossed two of the three fraud convictions against him and two other Hollinger executives.
He served 37 months in a Florida prison and returned to Canada in May 2012.