Conrad Black - what a guy

[Asher]

Not because he wanted to.

If he didn't want to, he wouldn't do it.

He not only wanted to, he trashed Canada publicly after he did it.

[Ben Kenobi]

He not only wanted to, he trashed Canada publicly after he did it.

If he wanted to renounce, why did it take Chretien forcing the issue to get him to do so. And he was right to trash Canada and Chretien. In any case, he'll be rightfully restored soon enough.

[Uncle Sparky]

While it is bad karma to argue with an idiot, I will add that according to Canadian law, you cannot be a Canadian citizen and a British peer. Anyone who wishes to purchase a peerage, like Black did, must renounce their Canadian citizenship. Which he did. Complicated? No.

[Dinner]

In fairness, Adam Boulton is a jackass.

Wiki says he is from Reading originally so all is right with the world.

[Ben Kenobi]

I will add that according to Canadian law, you cannot be a Canadian citizen and a British peer. Anyone who wishes to purchase a peerage, like Black did, must renounce their Canadian citizenship. Which he did. Complicated? No.

Again, for the fourth time, Lord Beaverbrook did not renounce his Canadian Citizenship, nor was he ever required to do so. Ergo, the law, which is over 100 years old now is no longer enforced.

Time to rubbish it in the bin.

[Uncle Sparky]

There was no such thing as 'Canadian citizenship' until 1946. Beaverbrook did not have to give up his Canadian citizenship, or his prized unicorn. M00t point.

[notyoueither]

While it is bad karma to argue with an idiot, I will add that according to Canadian law, you cannot be a Canadian citizen and a British peer. Anyone who wishes to purchase a peerage, like Black did, must renounce their Canadian citizenship. Which he did. Complicated? No.

I don't think it's a law, actually.

It was a resolution that passed the House of Commons, twice, but was never sent to the Senate or for Royal Assent *cough*

At least according to wiki.

Also, there have been Canadians given honours since and the Canadian Government did not complain in at least some of those cases.

[Wezil]

Removing his Order of Canada is the first business to be attended to.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

More Black glories, on the BBC this time.

[Ben Kenobi]

There was no such thing as 'Canadian citizenship' until 1946. Beaverbrook did not have to give up his Canadian citizenship, or his prized unicorn. M00t point.

. No, just no. Sorry.

[Wezil]

Almost two-thirds of Canadians say Conrad Black should be stripped of his Order of Canada, according to a new poll by Forum Research Inc.

The random telephone survey was conducted Saturday, shortly after Black called one British TV interviewer a “jackass” and another a “priggish, gullible . . . fool” for questioning his protestations of innocence during interviews to promote his new book.

“For a media baron he’s done a terrible job of promoting himself and explaining,” Forum president Lorne Bozinoff said Monday, describing the combative television appearances as “a disaster.”

The poll found 63 per cent of respondents agreed Black should have the Order of Canada, bestowed on him in 1990, taken away.

Just under one-fifth, or 19 per cent disagreed, and 18 per cent said they didn’t have an opinion in the poll that contacted 1,735 randomly selected Canadians over age 18.

In his new book, A Matter of Principle, Black argues he was falsely accused and convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice at his former newspaper company before being unfairly sentenced to three years in a Florida prison.

Canadians also took a tough stance last May when a Forum poll asked if Black should be given back the Canadian citizenship he renounced 11 years ago. Only 21 per cent of 1,836 randomly selected respondents said he should be given a second chance while 61 per cent said Black should be denied.

Black surrendered his Canadian citizenship in 2001 to sit in the British House of Lords.

The new poll found wealthier Canadians take a harder line on stripping Black of the prestigious Order of Canada, with 71 per cent of those enjoying household incomes above $100,000 saying the honour should be revoked.

That compares with 60 per cent for households earning less than $20,000.

Bozinoff said higher-income Canadians are likely more disapproving of Black because they are older and remember his heady days in the newspaper business in the 1980s and 1990s followed by his fall from grace and pursuit by U.S. authorities, resulting in his 2007 convictions.

“Older people will have known of Black for longer periods of time. Younger people don’t know him the way older people did.”

Women also took a harder line than men, with 64 per cent versus 61 per cent saying he should lose the award. And 69 per cent of people who prefer the NDP said Black should have the honour rescinded, compared with 59 per cent for Conservative and Liberal supporters.

Black told the CBC last week he’d return the gold-edged Order of Canada badge before giving “junior officials the evidently almost aphrodisiacal pleasure of throwing me out.”

The order is administered by an advisory council that is mandated to consider terminating a member convicted of a criminal offence. Only four people have had the order stripped, including former NHLPA president Alan Eagleson.

Black was stymied last week in a court bid for an oral hearing before the council to present arguments why he should remain a member of the Order of Canada, and told to submit a written proposal like everyone else.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1279399--poll-63-of-canadians-say-conrad-black-should-lose-order-of-canada