Backgrounder: Bios of UVic honorary degree recipients, Fall 2017 convocation
Barney Williams Jr., Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD)
Tuesday, Nov. 14, 10 a.m.
Barney Williams Jr., is Nuu-chah-nulth and a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation. A registered clinical counselor and a survivor of the residential school system, he was an invaluable contributor to the work of Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
From 2008 to 2015, he served as a member of the commission’s Indian residential school survivor committee and provided cultural and spiritual advice to the commissioners.
When he was five, he was removed from his home and taken to the Christie Indian Residential School in Tofino. Like many of the 150,000 children placed in residential schools, Williams was punished for speaking his own language and was severely abused.
He suffered post-traumatic stress—nightmares, flashbacks and depression—and turned to alcohol and attempted suicide. But in 1966 while in his early 20s, he began his recovery, and has been sober since then.
A registered clinical counsellor, he has provided training, healing and workshops for individuals and communities in the areas of mental health, crisis intervention and addictions. He assisted in the development of a counselling diploma program at Malaspina University College.
Williams served for 60 years as the traditional keeper of the beach for the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation. He is also an Elder-in-Residence at UVic and provides advice on the university’s role in reconciliation. He lives in Campbell River.
Neil Sterritt, Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD)
Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2:30 p.m.
Neil Sterritt was a driving force behind what is arguably the most important court decision in the history of Indigenous land claims in Canada. Sterritt was president of the Gitxsan-Wet’suwet’en Tribal Council when in 1984 he and a group of Elders, frustrated by a lack of progress on land claims in meetings with Canadian first ministers, filed a statement of claim in Smithers Provincial Court registry.
The elders turned to the courts to give substance to Aboriginal treaty rights and self-government based on Indigenous laws, traditions and governing structures. The subsequent trial lasted 374 days, with Sterritt testifying for 33 of those days. Among several precedents set at trial, hereditary chiefs and elders gave testimony in their own language about their culture and relationship to the land.
The case, Delgamuukw vs. British Columbia, went to the Supreme Court of Canada. In its 1997 ruling, the court confirmed the existence of Aboriginal title in BC. It also ruled that when dealing with Crown land, governments are obligated to consult with, and may have to compensate, First Nations whose rights are affected.
In the early 1980s, Sterritt and other Gitxsan leaders worked with former UVic President Howard Petch to form the successful and innovative First Nations teacher education program that was delivered in Hazelton and at the UVic Faculty of Education.
Sterritt lives in 150 Mile House.
Dr. David Flaherty, Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD)
Wednesday, Nov. 15, 10 a.m.
In 1993, David Flaherty was appointed as BC’s first information and privacy commissioner. He served for six years, writing some 320 orders under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, and putting the province on the map in terms of increased transparency and accountability of public institutions.
He has played a central role in the development of information and privacy law and policy at the national level. Internationally, he has been a crucial figure in discussions surrounding privacy and access to information. In addition to his contributions to the development of privacy law, Flaherty is an influential legal scholar and patron of the arts.
Starting in 1980, he was at the forefront of a new focus on Canadian legal history, a field that up to that point had been mostly dominated by the history of English Common Law. In the next decade, a new generation of legal scholars pursued research in all areas and periods of Canadian law. Flaherty was at the centre of that transformation through his work as an historian and editor.
More recently, Flaherty has been a patron of the arts in Victoria through his philanthropy and volunteerism. He led a four-year fundraising campaign that established new rehearsal and office space for Pacific Opera Victoria. From 1999 to 2006, he was an adjunct professor of political science at UVic. He lives in Victoria.
Sheridan Scott, Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD)
Wednesday, Nov. 15 | 2:30 p.m.
Sheridan Scott’s legal career has been characterized by her professionalism, leadership and technical mastery—skills that have influenced Canadian broadcasting, telecommunications and competition law.
After becoming the first UVic Law graduate to serve as clerk to Chief Justice Bora Laskin of the Supreme Court of Canada, Scott joined the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC). From 1983 to 1992, she served as legal counsel and senior legal counsel. During that time, she was involved in major decisions about long distance competition in telecommunications, cable television rates and an overhaul of national broadcasting regulations.
She joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1993, serving as vice president of regulatory affairs and corporate development. She was involved in the CBC's decision to create its all-news French language service. In 1994, she moved to the private sector after being appointed Bell Canada’s chief regulatory officer, and went on to oversee all activities involving the CRTC, the Copyright Board and the Competition Bureau.
In 2004, the federal government appointed Scott to be commissioner of the Competition Bureau of Canada, the independent federal agency tasked with the enforcement of the Competition Act. During her tenure, she was chosen to lead the International Competition Network, representing more than 100 competition agencies from around the world.
On completion of her term at the bureau in 2009, she joined one of Canada’s top business law firms, Bennett Jones LLP, as partner and co-chair of the firm’s competition and antitrust practice, advising clients on a complex communication law matters and competition-related public policy initiatives.
Over the past 30 years, she has been on the board of directors of a number of arts and community organizations as well as professional associations. These include Opera Lyra Ottawa, Canadian Women in Communications, and most recently the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.
Scott is a recipient of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Canadian New Media Special Recognition Award and the University of Victoria Distinguished Alumni Award, and was named one of Canada's 100 Most Powerful Women. Scott now lives in Victoria.