Rosalie Abella Honored with Order of Canada

Rosalie Abella, a former Supreme Court justice, has dedicated her life to advancing equality and constitutional jurisprudence.

Rosalie Silberman Abella, a former Supreme Court of Canada judge who has shown a transformative role in Canadian law and life, has been appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the highest civil honors of the country.

The appointment, issued on December 2, 2014, by Governor General Mary Simon, recognizes the more than five decades of career devoted by Abella to promoting equality, human rights, and social justice on a legal basis. Having been appointed to the Supreme Court in 2004, she served nearly 20 years and contributed to the establishment of landmark cases that ruled on same-sex marriage, women's employment rights, employment protection rights for minorities, and the constitutional right to strike.

Abella’s journey to the highest levels of law is also deeply personal. At a refugee camp in Germany after the war, she was born in the displaced people camp, which in turn made her become a refugee in Canada in 1950, and she also became the first refugee and first Jewish woman to become the top member of the Canadian court. She is a visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School.

Outside the court, Abella had an interest in law and policy, as the sole commissioner of the 1984 Royal Commission on Equality in Employment. In her work, the author suggested a new term, "employment equity," changing the subject of debate nationally and affecting the equality law in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

An exceptionally prolific scholar and lecturer, Abella still influences the law, both through teaching and research in some of the world's preeminent institutions and through a long-lasting legacy in the courts, classrooms, and media.