Rosalie Silberman Abella | |
---|---|
Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada | |
In office October 4, 2004 –July 1, 2021 | |
Nominated by | Paul Martin |
Preceded by | Frank Iacobucci / Louise Arbour |
Succeeded by | Mahmud Jamal |
Personal details | |
Born | Stuttgart,Germany | July 1,1946
Nationality | Canadian |
Spouse(s) | Irving Abella (1968-2022,his death) [1] |
Education | University of Toronto (BA,LLB) |
Rosalie Silberman Abella FRSC (born July 1,1946) is a Canadian jurist. In 2004,Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada,becoming the first Jewish woman and refugee to sit on the Canadian Supreme Court bench. [2] She retired from the federal bench in 2021.
Rosalie Silberman Abella was born on July 1,1946,the daughter of Jacob and Fanny (Krongold) Silberman. [3] [4] She was born in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart,Germany. Her father was born in Sienno,Poland,in 1910, [5] while her mother was born in Ostrowiec in 1917. [6] Abella's older sister was murdered in the Holocaust. Her parents both survived,Jacob Silberman was liberated from Theresienstadt Concentration Camp,Fanny Silberman survived Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Jacob had studied law at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and was appointed head of legal services for displaced persons in the US Zone of Southwest Germany. [7] [8] [3] In 1950,her family was admitted into Canada,though Jacob Silberman was not allowed to practise law because he was not a citizen. [3] [9]
From a young age,Abella was determined to become a lawyer. [3] [10] She attended Oakwood Collegiate Institute and Bathurst Heights Secondary School in Toronto,Ontario. [11] She then attended the University of Toronto,where she earned a B.A. in 1967 and an LL.B. in 1970. [2] In 1964,Abella graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music in classical piano. [2]
Abella was called to the Ontario bar in 1972. [12] She practised civil and criminal litigation until 1976,when,at the age of 29,she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court (which is now part of the Ontario Court of Justice) by then–attorney general Roy McMurtry, [13] becoming both the youngest and first pregnant judge in Canadian history. [14] She was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992. [12]
In 1983–1984,Abella served as the sole commissioner of the federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment (known as the Abella commission),appointed by Lloyd Axworthy. [13] As commissioner,she coined the term and concept of "employment equity", [4] a strategy for reducing barriers in employment faced by women,visible minorities,people with disabilities,and Aboriginal peoples. [12] [2] The theories of equality and discrimination developed in the report were adopted in Andrews v Law Society of British Columbia (1989),the Supreme Court of Canada's first decision regarding equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms . [2] Its recommendations report was also adopted by jurisdictions including New Zealand,South Africa,and Northern Ireland. [12]
In 1988,Abella moderated the televised English-language leaders' debate between Brian Mulroney (PC),John Turner (Liberal) and Ed Broadbent (NDP). [2]
Abella 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,Jr. case. From 1988 to 1992,she taught at McGill University Faculty of Law as the Boulton Visiting Professor. [2] [15]
In 2004,Prime Minister Paul Martin appointed Abella to the Supreme Court of Canada. Abella became the first Jewish woman to sit on the court. [16] She was eligible to serve on the Supreme Court until July 1,2021,when she turned 75. [17] In February 2021,she announced that she would retire on that date,and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started the selection process of a new justice who would succeed her. [18] Mahmud Jamal was selected as her replacement,and assumed office on July 1,2021. Following her retirement from the Supreme Court,Abella has served as a visiting professor at Fordham University School of Law and Harvard Law School. [19] [20]
Abella is an authority on constitutional law and human rights law. Her opinions often cite foreign and international law. [4] According to Sian Elias,they are regarded as authoritative by judges in many common law countries. [9]
Abella has received at least 38 honorary degrees. [21] On June 7,2023,she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Saskatchewan. She became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1997. [2] She was awarded the Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002. [22] She was elected a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007. [23] In 2012 she was awarded the Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. [24] In May 2016,she was awarded an honorary degree from Yale University, [25] becoming the first Canadian woman to earn such an honour. [12] In addition,she has been a judge of the Giller Prize. In January 2017,Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's Center for International Human Rights named her the Global Jurist of the Year for 2016 in recognition of her commitment to human rights and international criminal justice. [26] In April 2018,Abella was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. [27]
Abella is the widow of historian Irving Abella, [12] and has two sons.
Without Precedent:The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella,a documentary film about Abella by director Barry Avrich,is slated to premiere May 1,2023 at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. [28]
Louise Arbour,is a Canadian lawyer,prosecutor and jurist.
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices,whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law,and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial,territorial and federal appellate courts. The Supreme Court is bijural,hearing cases from two major legal traditions and bilingual,hearing cases in both official languages of Canada.
The University of Toronto Faculty of Law is the law school of the University of Toronto. The Faculty's admissions process is the most selective of law schools in Canada and is one of the most selective in North America. The Faculty has consistently been ranked as the top law school for Common Law in Canada by Maclean's since it began to publish law school rankings. The Faculty offers the JD,LLM,SJD,MSL,and GPLLM degrees in law.
Osgoode Hall Law School,commonly shortened to Osgoode,is the law school of York University in Toronto,Ontario,Canada.
Beverley Marian McLachlin is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th chief justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017. She is the longest-serving chief justice in Canadian history and the first woman to hold the position. She is considered by many to be among the finest legal minds in the history of the Supreme Court.
Bora Laskin was a Canadian jurist who served as the 14th chief justice of Canada from 1973 to 1984. Laskin was appointed a puisne justice of the Supreme Court in 1970,and served on the Ontario Court of Appeal from 1965 to 1970. Before he was named to the bench,Laskin worked as a lawyer and in academia.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario is the appellate court for the province of Ontario,Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto,also the seat of the Law Society of Ontario and the Divisional Court of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Irving Martin Abella was a Canadian historian who served as a professor at York University from 1968 to 2013. He specialized in the history of the Jews in Canada and the Canadian labour movement.
Claire L'Heureux-Dubé is a retired Canadian judge who served as a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1987 to 2002. She was the first woman from Quebec and the second woman appointed to this position,after Bertha Wilson. Previously,she had been one of the first woman lawyers to handle divorce cases,and was the first woman appointed as a judge to the Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal.
Edward Leonard Greenspan,was one of Canada's most famous defence lawyers,and a prolific author of legal volumes. His fame was owed to numerous high-profile clients and to his national exposure on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio series Scales of Justice (1982–94).
John Sopinka,was a Canadian lawyer and puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada,the first Ukrainian-Canadian appointed to the high court.
The Gruber Prize for Justice,established in 2001,was one of five international prizes worth US$500,000 awarded by The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation,an American non-profit organization.
Anne L. Mactavish is a Canadian jurist who is a judge of the Federal Court of Appeal.
Grant v Torstar Corp,[2009] 3 S.C.R. 640,2009 SCC 61,is a 2009 Supreme Court of Canada decision on the defences to the tort of defamation. The Supreme Court ruled that the law of defamation should give way to the rights of a party to speak on matters of public interest,provided the party exercises a certain level of responsibility in verifying the potentially defamatory facts. This decision recognizes a defence of responsible communication on matters of public interest.
Andromache Karakatsanis is a Canadian jurist. She was nominated to the Supreme Court of Canada by Stephen Harper in October 2011. She is the first Greek-Canadian judge on the Court. Since the retirement of Rosalie Abella on July 1,2021,and of Michael Moldaver on September 1,2022,she is the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court.
Gloria Jean Epstein is a former judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. She had also previously been appointed to the Court of Ontario. She is known for her 1999 trial ruling in M v H that Ontario's Family Law Act was unconstitutional for discriminating against same-sex couples by denying them the same benefits as legally-married heterosexual couples. Epstein's decision was appealed up to the Supreme Court of Canada and upheld.
Sheilah L. Martin is a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada,having served in that role since December 18,2017. She was nominated to the court by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on November 29,2017. Before her appointment to Canada's highest court,Martin had served on the Court of Appeal of Alberta,the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories,and the Court of Appeal of Nunavut since 2016,and the Court of King's Bench of Alberta from 2005 to 2016. Martin is considered an expert in judicial ethics.
Mahmud Jamal is a Canadian jurist serving as a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada since 2021. Jamal worked as a partner at Osler,Hoskin &Harcourt and taught law at McGill University and Osgoode Hall Law School before he was appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 2019. He was nominated to the Supreme Court on June 17,2021,taking office on July 1 to succeed Rosalie Abella. Jamal was born in Kenya to a family of Indian origin,making him the first person from a visible minority group to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court.
The Abella commission,officially the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment,was a Canadian federal royal commission headed by Rosalie Abella.
Michelle O'Bonsawin is a Canadian jurist serving as a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada since September 1,2022. Before her appointment to the Supreme Court,she served as a judge on the Ontario Superior Court of Justice from 2017 to 2022. O'Bonsawin is the first Indigenous Canadian to serve as a Supreme Court justice.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).