Rosalie Abella

The Honourable Madam Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella (born July 1, 1946 in Stuttgart, Germany) is a Canadian jurist. She was appointed in 2004 to the Supreme Court of Canada, becoming the first Jewish woman to sit on the Canadian Supreme Court bench.

Abella was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany, and came to Canada with her family in 1950. She graduated from the University of Toronto Law School in 1970, and practiced civil and criminal litigation until 1976, when she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court, becoming the youngest judge in Canadian history. She was then appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992.

Abella, who is considered one of Canada's foremost experts in human rights law, has also been a chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board and the Ontario Law Reform Commission, and a board member of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. She was also a member of the judicial inquiry on the Donald Marshall case.

Abella was the author of the 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, in which she coined the term employment equity, a strategy for reducing barriers in employment faced by women, aboriginal people, non-whites, and people with disabilities.

Abella's appointment to the Supreme Court was not welcomed by Canadians opposed to judicial activism. It is felt by some that she is too liberal and will greatly favor the expansion of charter rights.

Abella has also been active in Canadian cultural life. She has been a judge of the Giller Prize, and has studied classical piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

She is married to Canadian historian Irving Abella and has two children, Jacob and Zachary.