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OTTAWA, March 2, 2011  —  Professor Benoît Pelletier, Faculty of Law, Civil Law Section, has been named Commander of the Order of the Crown by H.R.H. Albert II, King of the Belgians. His Excellency Bruno van der Pluijm, Ambassador of Belgium in Canada, will present him with the insignia of the Order at a ceremony to be held at the Belgian ambassador’s residence in May.

A graduate of Université Laval, the University of Ottawa, the Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and the Université d’Aix-Marseille III, Benoît Pelletier was a regular faculty member at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law from 1990 to 1998 and assistant dean from 1996 to 1998.

Elected Liberal member of the Québec National Assembly for Chapleau in 1998, Benoît Pelletier served as minister responsible for portfolios such as Canadian intergovernmental affairs, francophones within Canada and aboriginal affairs. He returned to teaching in 2008 with the Civil Law Section of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law.

The Order of the Crown was created in 1897. This distinction is awarded for distinguished artistic, literary or scientific achievements, or for commercial or industrial services and services rendered to the Belgian state. Paul Desmarais Sr. (Power Corporation of Canada) and Hugo Powell (Labatt Interbrew) are among the Canadians who have been awarded this distinction in the past.