Canadian titles debate
The Canadian titles debate originated with the presentation to the House of Commons of Canada of the Nickle Resolution in 1917. This resolution marked the earliest attempt to establish a federal government policy requesting the sovereign, in the right of the United Kingdom, not to grant knighthoods, baronetcies, and peerages to Canadians and set the precedent for later policies restricting Canadians from accepting titles from foreign countries. Dissatisfaction with the British honours system led to the gradual creation of a separate system for Canada.
The Nickle Resolution
The Nickle Resolution was a motion brought forward in 1917 by Conservative MP
Beginning in 1919, the press reported on the selling of honours in the United Kingdom and there was fear that the British government would honour a large number of Canadians for their service in the First World War by appointing them to titled classes in the newly created Order of the British Empire. In that context, Nickle again put a motion forward in the lower house of Parliament, calling on the King to "hereafter be graciously pleased to refrain from conferring any titles upon your subjects domiciled or living in Canada",[2] thus expanding the earlier resolution of 1917 to include even non-hereditary titles. The Commons voted to create a special committee to look at the question of honours and it concluded that the King should be asked to cease conferring "any title of honour or titular distinction ... save such appellations as are of a professional or vocational character or which appertain to an office". Titular honours from foreign governments were also to be banned. However, bravery and valour decorations, such as the Victoria Cross and Military Cross, were exempt.[3]
Although the second Nickle Resolution was adopted by the House of Commons, it was also not forwarded to the Senate, where it was expected to be defeated, as it touched on the
After the resolution
The Nickle Resolution was recognized as policy during Mackenzie King's tenure as prime minister and was entrenched in government practice by the time Mackenzie King retired in 1948. However, in February 1929, another debate was held in the House of Commons on the question of titular honours; specifically, on the question of whether the Nickle Resolution ought to be reconsidered. Mackenzie King, on 12 February 1929, stated in the Commons:
If we are to have no titles, titular distinctions, or honours in Canada, let us hold to the principle and have none, let us abolish them altogether; but, if the sovereigns or heads of other countries are to be permitted to bestow honours on Canadians, for my part, I think we owe it to our own sovereign to give him that prerogative before all others.[citation needed]
The motion was defeated on 14 February 1929.
Granting of honours resumed
Starting with the 1933 list, Conservative Prime Minister
It has been a matter of passing comment, as pointed out by an eminent lawyer not long ago, that a resolution of a House of Commons which has long since ceased to be, could not bind future Parliaments and future Houses of Commons. ... The power of a mere resolution by this House, if acceded to, would create such a condition that no principle which secures life or liberty would be safe. That is what Judge Coleridge pointed out.[4]
Moreover, as a matter touching the royal prerogative, Bennett had already reported to the House on 17 May 1933 that the Nickle Resolution was of no force or of null effect, stating that knighting of his minister George Halsey Perley was:
… in conformity with established constitutional practice, it being the considered view of His Majesty's government in Canada that the motion, with respect to honours, adopted on the 22nd day of May, 1919, by a majority vote of the members of the Commons House only of the 13th parliament (which was dissolved on the 4th day of October, 1921) is not binding upon His Majesty or His Majesty's government in Canada or the seventeenth Parliament of Canada.[5]
On 30 January 1934, speaking about his responsibility as prime minister and that he wished to continue the custom of advising the King to bestow royal honours on Canadian subjects (which Conservative and Liberal administrations had chosen not to exercise for almost 15 years), Bennett said:
The action [of recommending people for titular honours] is that of the prime minister; he must assume the responsibility, and the responsibility, too, for advising the Crown that the resolution passed by the House of Commons was without validity, force, or effect, with respect to the sovereign's prerogative. That seems to me to be reasonably clear.[6]
To these official statements can be added what Bennett wrote in a 1934 letter to Member of Parliament John Ritchie MacNicoll, when he stated his view that:
So long as I remain a citizen of the British Empire and a loyal subject of the King, I do not propose to do otherwise than assume the prerogative rights of the Sovereign to recognize the services of his subjects.
Moreover, as Bennett stated opening the 1934 debate about the Nickle Resolution:
That was as ineffective in law as it is possible for any group of words to be. It was not only ineffective, but I am sorry to say, it was an affront to the Sovereign himself. Every constitutional lawyer, or anyone who has taken the trouble to study this matter realizes that that is what was done.[7]
R. B. Bennett's government submitted honours lists to the King every year from 1933 until its defeat in 1935, recommending that various prominent Canadians receive knighthoods, including the
When a vote was called on 14 March 1934 on a private member's (Humphrey Mitchell, Labour, East Hamilton) earlier resolution to require the prime minister to cease making recommendations to the King for titles (which Bennett in January conceded as "within its [the House's] constitutional rights" and "no affront to the sovereign", although valid only for one term), this renewed Nickle-like Resolution was defeated 113 to 94. The House of Commons of Canada, by this vote, refused to reaffirm or reinstate the Nickle Resolution or its attempts to prevent the Prime Minister's involvement in the exercise of the royal prerogative of granting titles to Canadians. This is the last time that the lower house of Parliament ever voted on the issue.
Mackenzie King reaffirms ban
When William Lyon Mackenzie King returned to power in 1935, he ignored the precedent set by Bennett's government, and resumed the former policy. The no-honours policy of successive Canadian governments has been in effect ever since. However, no attempt was made to forbid the use of the titular honours by those who had been granted them by the King at Bennett's recommendation.
In 1938, Bennett moved to England, and in 1941, he was elevated to the British
Modern policy
In 1968, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson's government published Regulations respecting the acceptance and wearing by Canadians of Commonwealth and foreign orders, decorations and medals. These policies were again affirmed in 1988 when the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney published Policy Respecting the Awarding of an Order, Decoration or Medal by a Commonwealth or Foreign Government.
Conrad Black vs Jean Chrétien
The best-known modern application of the Nickle Resolution occurred when Prime Minister
In the end, Black resolved the matter by renouncing his Canadian citizenship, something he had vowed to never do. This made him a British citizen only, so there was no question that Canada had no voice in denying him a British honour. In 2023, Black regained Canadian citizenship while remaining a British peer.[10]
Exceptions and anomalies
Even in the immediate aftermath of the Nickle Resolution, titular honours were granted to subjects of the King who remained residents of Canada, and such honours were passed on to their legal inheritors. The Nickle Resolution was not an effective instrument to establish Canada's desire to end the granting of titular honours to Canadians. It would take later prime ministers to do so.
The prime minister at the time of the resolution,
Canadian steel magnate
, inherited his father's baronetcy. At the time, the same parliament that had adopted the Nickle Resolution was still in session. It follows that such a resolution, had it had any binding nature, would have been in effect at least until the dissolution of the 13th parliament on 14 October 1921.Also honoured following the Nickle Resolution was
The
Another significant example of government indecision over the matter of titular honours involves former Canadian governor general
A different example was that of
In addition to this extraterritorial anomaly, even today the
During the premiership of Tony Blair, at least two persons holding British citizenship were granted titular honours by the Crown before the Black peerage issue, which brought the matter to the Canadian prime minister's attention.
On 2 November 1999, Canadian Senator Anne Cools brought to the Senate of Canada's notice the discrepancy in policy on orders for English Canadians and orders for French Canadians:
Honourable senators, the sovereign of France, the President, conferred the
Queen of Canada.
In addition, on 4 November 1999, she brought to the Senate's notice the fact that in the first decade alone after the Nickle Resolution was debated, there were
many distinguished Canadians who have received 646 orders and distinctions from foreign non-British, non-Canadian sovereigns between 1919 and February 1929.
In February 2004, the Department of International Trade announced the impending visit to Sydney of Sir Terry Matthews, dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Canada, with a press release that included the following passage: "Sir Terry is the Chairman of Mitel Networks. ... In 1994, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and was awarded a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours, 2001."
Some Canadian title holders do not employ their British- or French-derived titles in Canada. One such example being
Other Commonwealth countries
Commonwealth countries such as the
Australia retained access to the Imperial (British) honours system until October 1992 with the 1983 New Year Honours being the last awards recommended by the federal government. The last awards recommended by state governments were in 1989. The Order of Australia (analogous to the Order of Canada) was established in 1975 without knighthoods and damehoods. Knighthoods and damehoods were introduced in 1976 and discontinued in 1983, re-established in 2014, and discontinued again in 2015. The King of Australia, in his personal capacity, retains the ability to appoint Australian citizens as knights and ladies companion of the Order of the Garter, knights and ladies of the Order of the Thistle, and knights and dames grand cross and commander of the Royal Victorian Order, an act solely within the sovereign's personal discretion, his Australian ministers having no involvement. The Australian Order of Wear states that awards conferred by the Sovereign in exercise of the Royal Prerogative are treated as Australian and not foreign awards.[14][15]
See also
- Canadian peers and baronets
- Baronetcies conferred on the recommendation of Canadian governments
- Orders, decorations, and medals of Canada
- Canadian order of precedence (decorations and medals)
- Political culture of Canada
- Monarchy of Canada
- Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925
References
- ISBN 978-1-55002-554-5.
- ^ a b c McCreery 2005, p. 37
- ^ McCreery 2005, pp. 37–38
- ^ Hansard (House of Commons Debates, 17th Parliament, 5th Session: Vol. 1), page 99. Earlier (page 94) it was made clear that the argument, started the day before, concerned the constitutional ramifications of the British Stockdale v Hansard (1839), and Bennett extensively quoted from three of its Judges' opinions.
- ^ Re-quoted also in the 1934 Hansard page 96.
- ^ Hansard page 96, again
- ^ "House of Commons Debates, 17th Parliament, 5th ... - Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources". parl.canadiana.ca.
- ^ Listed at British Orders to Canadians, PDF "#02 -- Index to Canadians who have been Knighted"
- ^ [1] London Gazette, 22 July 1941.
- ^ "Conrad Black says he's regained the Canadian citizenship he renounced in 2001". CTV News. 2023-04-28. Archived from the original on 2023-05-09.
- ISBN 0-8020-5656-3.
- ^ "A man of small economies and grand generosities". The Globe and Mail. 12 June 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-06-14.
- ^ "Titles of Dames, Knights to be restored - Key - Politics - NZ Herald News". Nzherald.co.nz. 2009-03-08. Retrieved 2010-06-18.
- ^ "Knights and dames to again be part of honours system". The Australian. 2014-03-25. Retrieved 2014-03-27.
- ^ Norman, Jane; Iggulden, Tom (2 November 2015). "Knights and dames scrapped from Order of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull says". ABC. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
Bibliography
- McCreery, Christopher (2005). The Order of Canada: Its Origins, History and Development. ISBN 0-8020-3940-5Contains a full discussion of Canadian government policy towards titular honours.
- The Rule of Law and the Justiciability of Prerogative Powers: A Comment on Black v. Chrétien (pdf)
- Senator Anne C. Cools' webpages detailing the applicability of the Nickle Resolution during R.B. Bennett's time and afterward