TORONTO - Lawyers for Garth Drabinsky are in Federal Court today fighting on behalf of the disgraced theatre mogul to reclaim the Order of Canada he lost while serving his prison sentence for fraud.

Drabinsky -- who is on day parole in Toronto but wasn't at the hearing -- is asking the court to declare the decision of the Order of Canada advisory council unlawful.

He wants the court to order the council to consider more submissions from him about why he should get to keep the honour, received in 1995, now that he is out of prison and able to prepare them.

His lawyer, John Koch, says the way in which Drabinsky was stripped of his Order involved a "denial of natural justice."

He says the advisory council did not do what it was required to do, which includes reporting on its findings.

Koch also suggests the Governor General was "misadvised" as all of the council's findings, including the fact that Drabinsky wasn't given the opportunity to make in-person submissions, weren't clearly set out before him.