Justice Abella was appointed to the Suprem e Court of Canada in 2004. She is the first Jewish woman appointed to the C ourt. After she was born in a Displaced Person’s Camp in Stuttgart\, German y on July 1\, 1946\, Justice Abella's family came to Canada as Jewish refug ees in 1950. She is the first refugee appointed to the bench in Canada.
In 2025\, Justice Abella was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canad a. 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 S ociety in 2018. In 2020\, she was awarded the Knight Commander‘s Cross of t he Order of Merit by the President of Germany.
Amongst her many achie vements\, Justice Abella was Chair and author of the Ontario Study on Acces s to Legal Services by the Disabled in 1983 and the sole Commissioner of th e 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment\, creating the te rm and concept of “employment equity”. The theories of “equality” and “disc rimination” she developed in her Royal Commission Report were adopted by th e Supreme Court of Canada in its first decision dealing with equality right s under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1989. The report has been implemented by the governments of Canada\, New Zealand\, Northern Ire land and South Africa.
Her full bio is here: https://hls.harvard.edu/ faculty/rosalie-silberman-abella/
Kosher food will be served.
LOCATION:WCC\; B010 Singer Classroom GEO:0;0 ORGANIZER;CN="API User":MAILTO:api@law.harvard.edu URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/fireside-chat-with-justice-ros alie-abella-the-first-jewish-woman-appointed-to-the-supreme-court-of-canada / END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20261101T060000 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR