A proposed new law from the governing Liberals would prevent even those accused of a crime of seeking Canadian citizenship.

An excerpt from the CP story on globeandmail.com:

Foreign charges and convictions do not currently stop someone from obtaining Canadian citizenship.

But a statement from Mr. Volpe's office says “the proposed foreign criminal prohibitions provision will, with respect to foreign offences, prevent people from acquiring citizenship if they are currently serving a sentence, have been convicted of a serious crime in the last three years or are currently charged with a serious offence.”

Should the proposed legislation pass, “foreign criminal prohibitions will apply to all pending cases and new applications equally,” the release says.

A report Friday said Lord Black, who is expected to appear in a Chicago court next Wednesday to face eight counts of criminal fraud, has filed an application to get back his citizenship. Lord Black's lawyer, Eddie Greenspan, would not comment on the report.

Greg Scott, a spokesman for the department of Citizenship and Immigration, said the federal government does not disclose who has applied for citizenship or what stage their application is at.

Fortunately for Conrad, the government is about to collapse, so he could possibly dodge this bullet.

But the story goes on to say that to become a Kha-nay-dee-anne, one must be a permanent resident. The story said it isn't known if Black is a permanent resident of Canada. However, if a permanent resident is accused of a serious crime in another country, they could face a hearing stripping them of their permanent residency status.

Poor fellow.