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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, says the Governor General.
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, Marie-Pierre Belanger, says an advisory council met Friday afternoon to make its recommendation to Johnston.
The council's members include the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Beverley McLachlin, and Wayne Wouters, the clerk of the Privy Council, Canada's top public servant.
Friday's announcement means Black can no longer attach the initials O.C., and P.C., to his name. Belanger 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 in 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 that had been weighing whether he should be stripped of the Order of Canada. Belanger said Black was allowed to make written submissions.
The 11-member advisory council reviewed Black's membership in the order following his 2007 convictions for fraud and obstruction of justice in the United States. Black was given Canada's highest honour in 1990.
