Conrad Black, who famously renounced his Canadian citizenship so he could assume the British peerage as Lord Black of Crossharbour, now wants to call Canada his home, according to news reports. But does returning as a Canadian citizen mean he'll have to give up his title and his place in the British House of Lords?

In a dogged display of his convictions, Black went to great lengths — battling the prime minister in the courts for two years and forsaking his Canadian citizenship in 2001 — so he could relish a title granted to him by the British prime minister.

But while "Lord" Black is an accepted honour in the U.K., bestowed in fact by an act of the British Parliament, that is not the case in Canada.

Indeed, since passing the Nickle Resolution in 1919, Canada has prohibited the British, or any foreign government for that matter, from conferring "any title of honour or titular distinction" upon any Canadian citizen.

The resolution says that conferring titles on Canadians isn't compatible with Canada's ideals of democracy. "It's seen as offensive to our social mores," explains immigration lawyer Guidy Mamann.

So when British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Montreal-born Black in May 1999 that he would be elevated to his much-coveted peerage, then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien used the Nickel Resolution and a subsequent policy statement by the Brian Mulroney government as grounds to block the move.

Black insisted this was a vindictive act on the part of the prime minister as retribution for criticizing the Liberals in one of his newspapers at the time, the National Post.

He even went to court against Chrétien, arguing that Canada had changed its laws in 1977 to allow Canadians to hold multiple citizenships. In spite of this, the prime minister held that he had the right to keep Black from becoming a life peer — or at least to formally request the British government not grant the honour — because Black was also a Canadian citizen.

Making his choice

Faced with the choice between remaining a Canadian and having a seat in the British House of Lords, Black decided he wanted the life peerage more. After two courts rejected his attempt to sue Chrétien for abuse of power, Black renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 — something he had said he would never do — clearing his way to become Lord Black of Crossharbour.

Black said then that he intended to return to Canada once Chrétien was out of office. Now that he's going through what he called "the normal channels" to become a Canadian citizen again, it's unclear whether his title would be threatened.

Former Canadians who give up their citizenship and wish to reapply must only live in Canada for a year before being eligible.

But a new wrinkle in this case is that the Stephen Harper government is considering doing away with dual citizenship, according to some news reports, in part because of the costly venture this summer when it helped evacuate some 10,000 Lebanese-Canadians with dual passports from war-ravaged Lebanon.

If it does, this could once again force Black to choose.

Still, one expert on the monarchy in Canada believes Black may have found his way around the Nickle Resolution.

"It's not so much a loophole. I'd say it's an awful big risk," says Garry Toffoli, executive director of the Canadian Royal Heritage Trust. "It's a way to get around the system, but it's an awful risky way because there's really no guarantee you're going to get back what you gave up. Giving up your citizenship doesn't automatically mean you'll get it back again."

None of the dozens of foreign royalty now residing in Canada would have their titles stripped because of their Canadian citizenship, he points out. "It's the same thing. [Black] has his peerage and it's not going to be taken away from him."

Other moguls

Toffoli also notes that the late media mogul, Ken Thomson (who inherited the baronial title Lord Thomson of Fleet from his father), did not use his title in Canada, though he did in Britain. Because of the Nickle Resolution, his father, Roy Thomson, had to forfeit his Canadian citizenship in 1963 in order to accept a seat in the House of Lords.

It's also not impossible to hold a British-bestowed title while being a Canadian citizen. There are at least two cases of people with dual Canadian-British citizenships who have retained titles that were granted fairly recently.

In 2001, Welsh-born billionaire Terry Matthews sparked a diplomatic row when he was awarded a knighthood. Matthews became a Canadian citizen after he left Wales in 1969 to seek his telecommunications fortune in Ottawa.

Chrétien was furious and said Blair should have informed the Canadian government about the honour. But Sir Terry still retains his title.

George Sayers Bain, another Canadian citizen who lives in Britain, was also bestowed a knighthood in the same ceremony. Blair explained that he did not know Bain was a Canadian citizen until it was too late to change the list. But that wasn't the case with Matthews.

At the time, Chrétien 's office issued a formal note to the British government stating: "What I and the government object to is that, by conferring the knighthoods without seeking the agreement of the Canadian government, you have not taken into account the Canadian government policy with regard to how Canadian citizens should be honoured."

Mamann says there is no law that would exclude the possibility of granting citizenship to someone who was knighted overseas. But unlike the cases of Sir Bain and Sir Terry, Lord Black's was an appointment to the House of Lords and an invitation to take part in the British Parliament (though Black is said to attend debates only rarely).

There is also the remote threat of the British House of Lords stripping Black of his title if he is convicted of charges in the U.S. involving alleged violation of security laws.

Although it has been decades since that has happened, there have been precedents: During the First World War, the third Duke of Cumberland was suspended of his title and barred from the House of Lords for supporting the Germans; as well, Charles, the Duke of Albany, was deprived of the peerage for bearing arms against the U.K.

In any case, whether Black gets to keep his title as a Canadian citizen may not matter in the end, monarchy expert Toffoli says.

"He's now in a position where what's at stake perhaps isn't really his British peerage. What's at stake is his Canadian citizenship."

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