Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella A Life of Firsts

Justice Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004, making history as the first Jewish woman appointed to Canada's top court. Born in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany, she had a storied career before joining Canada's top court as a practicing lawyer, a family court judge, law reformer (Chair of the Ontario Law Reform Commission), labour adjudicator, law professor, appeal court justice, and commission of inquiry head (her 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment created the term and concept of "employment equity.") She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1997, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007, and to the American Philosophical Society in 2018. In 2020, she was awarded the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Germany. She is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music, has judged the Giller Literary Prize, moderated a Prime Ministerial Leader's Debate, and spellbound audiences around the globe with her oratory.