Good grief - it seems like such a simply thing.
I'm not sure what the no-title buy process is here in Ontario, but a good friend recently found that if you buy a motorcycle with a "salvage title (i.e. it has been stolen and wrecked, or simply wrecked), you cannot, no-way/no-how get a licence plate for it and return it to the road. The only thing that bike can be used for is parts - no matter how minor the damage and how good the repair.
He was told that this was due to the huge number of Harleys that were being stolen by organised crime and fenced on the used market.