Former B.C. attorney general Andrew Petter and celebrated composer Linda Catlin Smith will receive honorary degrees during the University of Victoria’s fall convocation ceremonies Nov. 14 and 15.
More than 1,500 degrees, diplomas and certificates will be conferred at four ceremonies led by chancellor Marion Buller and president Kevin Hall.
Petter was a UVic undergraduate studying political science and law before earning a master’s degree in law at the University of Cambridge. He went on to teach law at UVic before embarking on a 10-year political career with the B.C. NDP.
He returned to UVic in 2001 and became dean of the law faculty. During his tenure, he developed the faculty’s graduate program and helped start the Akitsiraq Law School in Nunavut for Inuit students.
He was appointed president of Simon Fraser University in 2010 and served in that position until 2020.
Catlin Smith received both her bachelor and master’s degrees in music from UVic before moving to Toronto.
Since then, her music has been performed by major orchestras in Canada, and she has had performances at events around the world such as the Tectonics Festival in Glasgow in 2017 and London’s Principal Sound Festival in 2018.
She also taught composition at Wilfrid Laurier University from 1999 to 2020, and has inspired many young composers.
The upcoming ceremonies will be held at Farquhar Auditorium at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 14 and at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 15. They can be viewed online at uvic.ca/event/grad-2023.
Convocation ceremonies are held each year in June and November.
