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Conrad Black was stripped of the Order of Canada on Friday, becoming only the sixth person in history to have the honour removed.

In a Friday afternoon statement, Governor General David Johnston announced that, on the advice of the award’s advisory committee, he was terminating “Mr. Conrad Black’s appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada.”

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The same statement added that Mr. Black would also be removed from his position on the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada.

“Both decisions are effective immediately,” the statement concluded.

Friday’s statement provided no reasons as to the revocation, although since 2011 the award’s advisory committee has been reviewing whether to withdraw the Order due to Mr. Black’s 2007 convictions for fraud and obstruction of justice in the United States, for which he served 37 months of a 42-month sentence in Florida.

According to the award’s official policy, it can be stripped from any individual who had been convicted of a criminal offence, done something out of step with the “generally recognized standards of public behavior” or been “sanctioned by a professional organization.