Conrad Black at the University Club in Toronto in 2014.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Conrad Black says his Canadian citizenship has been restored more than 20 years after he renounced it.
Black gave up his citizenship in 2001 during a well-publicized fight with then-prime minister Jean Chretien over accepting a British peerage.
Black provided The Canadian Press with a copy of an opinion piece he says is to be published Saturday by the National Post, the newspaper he founded and regularly contributes to, saying he received his Canadian passport at his home this week.
He says his status in Canada was “for some years a matter of some controversy and curiosity,” adding that “these disagreeable memories” made the arrival of the passport “by special delivery … a particularly welcome event.”
The former media mogul was convicted of fraud in 2007 and spent time in a Florida federal prison for what prosecutors alleged was a scheme to siphon millions of dollars from the sale of newspapers owned by Hollinger Inc., where he was chief executive and chairman.
Black was deported to Canada and later granted a pardon by then-president Donald Trump, who he wrote a glowing biography about and has called a friend. Under U.S. law, a pardon represents full legal forgiveness for a crime, and Black has maintained he was a victim of an unfair criminal justice system.
A spokesperson for Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser says the ministry and minister do not comment on specific cases, citing privacy legislation.