| The Honourable Rosalie Silberman Abella |
|
|---|---|
| Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office October 4, 2004 |
|
| Nominated by | Paul Martin |
| Preceded by | Frank Iacobucci / Louise Arbour |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 1, 1946 Stuttgart, Germany |
| Spouse(s) | Irving Abella |
Rosalie Silberman Abella, FRSC (born July 1, 1946) is a Canadian jurist. She was appointed in 2004 to the Supreme Court of Canada,[1] becoming the first Jewish woman to sit on the Canadian Supreme Court bench.[1]
Contents |
Rosalie Silberman Abella was born in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany, where her father, a lawyer, was defence counsel for displaced persons in the Allied Zone of Southwest Germany.[2] She moved to Canada with her family in 1950. She attended the University of Toronto, where she obtained a B.A. in 1967 and an LL.B in 1970.[3]
Abella practised civil and family law until 1976, when at the age of 29 she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court (now part of the Ontario Court of Justice), becoming both the youngest and first pregnant judge in Canadian history.[4] She was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992. She has acted as chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Ontario Study into Access to Legal Services by the Disabled and the Ontario Law Reform Commission, and as a member of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and of the judicial inquiry into the Donald Marshall case. She is considered one of Canada's foremost experts on human rights law, and has taught at McGill Law School in Montreal.
Justice Abella presided over the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, where she coined the term employment equity, a strategy for reducing barriers in employment faced by women, visible minorities, people with disabilities, and aboriginal peoples. She moderated a televised leaders debate in 1988 between Brian Mulroney (PC), John Turner (Liberal) and Ed Broadbent (NDP).
Abella is the recipient of 27 honourary degrees, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007.[5] She has been a judge of the Giller Prize, and is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in classical piano. Abella is married, and has two sons.
|
||||||||||||||