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The media baron and the awarding body will square off over whether the court should step in and compel the Advisory Council to do something it has never done before: Allow an Order of Canada recipient facing public dishonour the chance to stand before an 11-person panel well-known for its confidential deliberations.

Lord Black told the National Post this week he is not planning to be at the half-day hearing on Friday and said the controversy is “rather overblown.”

“It is a question of rights and procedure, and should not be misrepresented or over-played as a personal drama,” he said in an email.

Whether I am actually an officer of [the Order of Canada] is not especially important, but the process is

Only four recipients have had the honour revoked, including Alan Eagleson, the hockey lawyer found guilty of fraud, and First Nations leader David Ahenakew after a conviction — later overturned — for inciting hatred against Jews.

According to the official policy on Order of Canada terminations, the council can advise the Governor General that someone should be stripped of the award if that person has been convicted of a criminal offence or does something out of step with the “generally recognized standards of public behaviour.”

The council told Lord Black it was considering pulling his award in a letter last summer and that he could make written submissions, which could include his letters of support from former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger, a former assistant United States attorney and Hollinger’s former acting president — all of which have since been filed to Federal Court.