Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella

The Honorable Rosalie Silberman Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004. She was the first Jewish woman and first refugee appointed to the Supreme Court. She was appointed to the Ontario Family Court in 1976 at the age of 29, the youngest and first pregnant woman appointed to the judiciary in Canada. She subsequently chaired the Ontario Law Reform Commission and the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

Justice Abella was the sole Commissioner and author of the 1984 Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, creating the term and concept of “employment equity” and developing a concept of discrimination and equality that the Supreme Court adopted in its first decision interpreting the new equality provision of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

She was the Boulton Visiting Professor at McGill Law School from 1988 to 1992, where she taught jurisprudence, administrative law, and constitutional law. In 1992, she was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal, where she served for 12 years until her appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Justice Abella was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2025 and, in 2020, was awarded the Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Germany. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in classical piano, a former judge of the Giller Literary Prize, and a former chair of the Rhodes Scholar selection committee.

Justice Abella has written over 90 articles, authored or co-authored four books, was a pioneer in judicial education, and lectures extensively in Canada and internationally. She has 42 honorary degrees. She was married to Canadian History professor Irving Abella from 1968 until his death in 2022. They have two sons, both lawyers. Since her retirement from the Supreme Court, she has been the Samuel and Judith Pisar Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School.