Rosalie Abella

Rosalie Silberman Abella is a Supreme Court of Canada judge and an international expert on human rights law. The first Jewish woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, she was born in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany, and came to Canada as a refugee in 1950. A graduate of the University of Toronto's law school, Abella was appointed to the Ontario Family Court in 1976, making her both the youngest and the first pregnant judge appointed in Canadian history. As Commissioner of the 1984 Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, Abella created the concept of "employment equity." Her theories on equality and discrimination informed Canada's first decision on equality rights under the Charter of Rights of Rights and Freedoms in 1989. She was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeals in 1992 and to the Supreme Court in 2004. The recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, Abella is recognized worldwide for her commitment to justice and human rights.

“In these frenetically fluid, intellectually sclerotic, economically narcissistic, ideologically polarized, and rhetorically tempestuous times, in a world that too often feels like it’s spinning out of control, we need a legal profession that worries about what that world looks and feels like to those who are vulnerable.”