Conrad Black, once a Canadian who renounced us citizenship to become an English Lord finds himself in very unusual legal waters from an immigration perspective.
As someone with a criminal conviction, he would be considered inadmissible to Canada as a non-Canadian citizen. This means that despite the fact that Lord Black was born in Canada and has a Canadian wife, his renunciation of Canadian citizenship nevertheless renders him inadmissible to Canada given his US conviction.
He is now awaiting the decision of US Judge Amy St. Eve on whether the terms of his bail would allow him to travel to Canada. Not so simple. Even if Judge St. Eve grants him access to Canada, Black, it would seem, would still have to apply for a Temporary Resident Permit (TRP) to be able to cross into Canada. As discussed extensively in our blogs, TRPs are not always easy to get and given this high profile case, Black’s application could take months to process.
I was interviewed on the Black debacle by the Canadian Press yesterday, reproduced below here