Канададағы атақтар мәселесі: тарихы мен дамуы

Debate on titular honours in Canada

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 was a motion brought forward in 1917 by Conservative MP William Folger Nickle in the House of Commons of Canada. There had been controversy before the end of World War I over the honouring of Canadians—especially the appointment of Sam Hughes as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (a non hereditary honour) in 1915 and the elevation of Hugh Graham as the Baron Atholstan (a hereditary honour)—and the qualifications of recipients. Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden disapproved of the process by which Canadians were nominated for honours and, in March 1917, drafted a policy stating that all names had to be vetted by the prime minister before the list was sent to Westminster. Nickle, however, at the same time, alleged that the granting of hereditary titles to Canadians was itself inconsistent with democratic values. Nickle's detractors, however, charged him with being motivated more by spite and chagrin over his failed attempt to obtain a knighthood for his father in law, Daniel Gordon, the principal of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Regardless, Nickle successfully moved a resolution through the House calling for an address to be made to King George V requesting that he no longer grant hereditary peerages and knighthoods to Canadians and that all such titles held by Canadians become extinct upon the death of the incumbent. The motion was carried by the House of Commons; though, Nickle himself voted against the version passed. 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 royal prerogative, a constitutional matter outside the competence of the House of Commons alone. As a resolution, rather than an act of Parliament or order in council, the Nickle Resolution would not have been legally binding on the government. It nonetheless established a policy precedent (with a varying degree of enforcement) that has not been challenged by the Senate.

Continentalist and nationalist forces in Canada's political life grew in strength through the 1920s. The Cabinet headed by William Lyon Mackenzie King insisted on an end to imperial practices, such as the British government ultimately appointing Canadian governors general, and demanded practical recognition of the equality between Britain and the Dominions and the latter's autonomy, as set out by the Balfour Declaration of 1926. 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. The motion was defeated on 14 February 1929.

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 House of Lords, as the first "Viscount Bennett, of Mickleham in the County of Surrey and of Hopewell and Calgary in Canada".

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.

The best known modern application of the Nickle Resolution occurred when Prime Minister Jean Chrétien attempted to use it to prevent Canadian publishing mogul Conrad Black from being appointed a British life peer by the government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Chrétien held that, in spite of the fact that the British government was honouring Black as a British citizen, and that Black then held dual citizenship of Canada and Britain (allowed since 1977), he as Prime Minister of Canada could object to Black becoming a British life peer because he was also a Canadian citizen. The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Chrétien but Ontario courts have no jurisdiction outside Ontario. This ruling, however, reportedly caused discomfort for Queen Elizabeth II, who did not wish to judge between the conflicting advice of two prime ministers. 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.

Commonwealth countries such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Jamaica, and Papua New Guinea still confer titular honours. In recent years, however, the latter two have generally opted to bestow national orders of similar standing, offering membership in the Order of the National Hero of Jamaica and Order of the Logohu as alternatives which come with their own styles of Right Excellent and Chief or Grand Chief, respectively. Appointment to the highest rank of the New Zealand Order of Merit grants members the right to use the titles sir or dame. However, between 2000 and 2009, during the premiership of Helen Clark, the conferral of knighthoods and damehoods was temporarily discontinued, with the two higher grades of the order being replaced with postnominals to indicate membership, more like the one grade Order of New Zealand. In March 2009, John Key requested to Elizabeth II that the order be resumed at the pre 2000 grades and granting of knighthoods and damehoods was continued. As in Australia, the Queen continued to make titular awards in the Royal Victorian Order, the Order of the Thistle, and the Order of the Garter, since these orders are within the sovereign's prerogative. New Zealanders who received New Zealand's former titular honours prior to 2000 may continue to employ them and those New Zealanders who received the equivalent postnominals between 2000 and 2008 were allowed to exchange them for the restored titles if they so chose. 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.