Cathy Wedge

{{short description|Canadian equestrian}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Cathy Wedge

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = Catherine Wedge

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1950|12|29|df=y}}

| birth_place = Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

| death_date =

| death_place =

| other_names =

| occupation = Judge

| partner = Leslie Hall Pinder (2014–2021; Pinder's death){{cite news |last1=Fraser |first1=Keith |title=Memorial service planned for passionate Indigenous rights advocate Pinder |url=https://vancouversun.com/news/memorial-service-planned-for-passionate-indigenous-rights-advocate-pinder |access-date=8 May 2023 |work=The Vancouver Sun |date=September 16, 2021}}

| known_for = 1978 Equestrian Team Gold

}}

{{MedalTableTop|}}

{{MedalSport|Equestrian}}

{{MedalCountry| {{CAN}} }}

{{MedalCompetition|World Championships}}

{{MedalGold|1978 Lexington|Team eventing}}

{{MedalCompetition|Pan American Games}}

{{MedalGold|1971 Cali|Team eventing}}

{{MedalBottom}}

Catherine "Cathy" Wedge (born 29 December 1950) is a Canadian jurist who has served as a justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia since 2001.{{cite web |title=Justices |url=https://www.bccourts.ca/supreme_court/about_the_supreme_court/Judges_and_Masters_of_the_Supreme_Court.aspx#current_justices |website=The Courts of British Columbia |access-date=21 December 2020}} She is also a retired equestrian who rode several times on the Canadian Equestrian Team between 1971 and 1978.

Early years

Catherine Wedge was born on 29 December 1950 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.{{sfn|Cathy Wedge, Sports Reference}} Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a justice of the Court of Queen's Bench for Saskatchewan. Her maternal grandfather was Emmett Matthew Hall, a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Wedge began to ride at the Saskatoon Pony Club when she was eight.{{sfn|Catherine "Cathy" Wedge, Hall of Fame}} Wynona Mulcaster was the unpaid instructor at the club from 1945 to 1973 and influenced Wedge's career.{{sfn|Wynona Mulcaster, Prairie Gold}}

Equestrian career

Wedge entered international competition in 1969, when she won the Working Hunter Championship at the Seattle International Horse Show. At the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia she won gold in the three-day team event riding her horse "Sumatra". She was named to the Canadian Olympic team for 1972, but could not compete due to a broken leg. In 1974 she won the Canadian three-day-event on "City Fella".{{sfn|Catherine "Cathy" Wedge, Hall of Fame}} In 1975 Wedge received serious arm and leg injuries in a competition in Massachusetts shortly before an event in Bromont, Quebec where she was scheduled to be part of the Canadian team. The coordinator of the event called her "the most artistic rider we had".{{sfn|Lash|1975|p=30}}

Cathy Wedge, {{convert|173|cm}} and {{convert|57|kg}}, represented Canada in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.{{sfn|Cathy Wedge, Sports Reference}} She again rode "City Fella".{{sfn|Catherine "Cathy" Wedge, Hall of Fame}} She placed 23rd in the mixed three-day individual equestrianism event, and her team placed 6th in the mixed three-day team equestrianism event.{{sfn|Cathy Wedge, Sports Reference}} Wedge rode "Abracadabra" in the Canadian team that won gold at the 1978 Eventing World Championship.{{sfn|Wynona Mulcaster, Prairie Gold}} "Abracadabra" was the second horse of team captain Elizabeth Ashton.{{sfn|Ashton|2014}}

Legal career

Wedge received a law degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1980 and was admitted to the B.C. bar the following year. She specialized in labour and employment law and was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia by justice minister Anne McLellan in 2001. In 2007 she presided over a civil trial between Francesco Aquilini and former business partners Tom Gaglardi and Ryan Beedie over Aquilini's purchase of the Vancouver Canucks.{{cite news |last1=Mulgrew |first1=Ian |title=A Canucks Conundrum |work=The Vancouver Sun |date=October 6, 2007}} She ruled in favor of Aquilini.{{cite news |last1=Mulgrew |first1=Ian |title=Closing The Deal |work=The Vancouver Sun |date=January 11, 2008}}

References

Citations

{{reflist |colwidth=30em}}

Sources

{{refbegin}}

  • {{cite web|url=http://www.canadianponyclub.org/about-us.php?page=awards&topic=bio&x=ashton|last=Ashton|first=Elizabeth|publisher=Canadian Pony Club|year=2014|title=Elizabeth Ashton|access-date=2014-08-01|archive-date=2015-09-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923200130/http://www.canadianponyclub.org/about-us.php?page=awards&topic=bio&x=ashton|url-status=dead}}
  • {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Catherine "Cathy" Wedge, Hall of Fame}}|url=http://sasksportshalloffame.com/inductees/catherine-cathy-wedge/|title=Catherine "Cathy" Wedge|publisher=Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame|access-date=2014-08-01}}
  • {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Cathy Wedge, Sports Reference}}|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/we/cathy-wedge-1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418122842/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/we/cathy-wedge-1.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-04-18|title=Cathy Wedge|publisher=Sports Reference LLC|access-date=2014-08-01}}
  • {{cite journal|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19750721&id=BHwxAAAAIBAJ&pg=1004,1567813|last=Lash|first=Rochelle|title=Sheila dreams the impossible equine dream|journal=The Montreal Gazette|date=1975-07-21|access-date=2014-08-01}}
  • {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Wynona Mulcaster, Prairie Gold}}|title=Wynona Mulcaster|work=Prairie Gold: Sports Heroes From Saskatchewan|publisher=Saskatoon Public Library|url=http://spldatabase.saskatoonlibrary.ca/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=MENU_QUERY&XC=/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll&TN=LH_SHOWS&SN=pg+PanAmerican+Games&RF=www_PG%20Full%20Record&EF=&DF=&MR=20&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&MF=|access-date=2014-07-27|archive-date=2014-08-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808052755/http://spldatabase.saskatoonlibrary.ca/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=MENU_QUERY&XC=%2Fics-wpd%2Fexec%2Ficswppro.dll&TN=LH_SHOWS&SN=pg%20PanAmerican%20Games&RF=www_PG%20Full%20Record&EF=&DF=&MR=20&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&MF=|url-status=dead}}

{{refend}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wedge, Cathy}}

Category:1950 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century Canadian sportswomen

Category:21st-century Canadian women lawyers

Category:Canadian female equestrians

Category:Canadian LGBTQ sportspeople

Category:Equestrians at the 1971 Pan American Games

Category:Equestrians at the 1976 Summer Olympics

Category:Medalists at the 1971 Pan American Games

Category:Olympic equestrians for Canada

Category:Pan American Games gold medalists for Canada

Category:Pan American Games gold medalists in equestrian

Category:Sportspeople from Saskatoon

Category:Judges in British Columbia

Category:LGBTQ judges

Category:Canadian LGBTQ lawyers

Category:University of Saskatchewan College of Law alumni

Category:21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people

Category:20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people