Home > Rosalie Abella

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 MarshallDonald Marshall is a Canadian man who was wrongly convicted of murder. Marshall was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his best friend Sandy Seale in 1971. They had been walking in a Sydney, Nova Scotia park, and Seale was attacked by a stranger case.

Abella was the author of the 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, in which she created the concept of employment equity, a strategy for reducing barriers in employment faced by women, aboriginal peopleFirst Nations is the current title used by Canada to describe the various societies of the indigenous peoples, called Native Americans in the U. They have also been known as Indians Native Canadians Aboriginal Americans, or Aboriginals and in fact are off, non-whites, and people with disabilities.

Abella has also been active in Canadian cultural life. She has been a judge of the Giller PrizeThe Giller Prize is an annual award that goes to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story fiction collection published in English. This prize was established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife Doris Gill, and has studied classical piano at The Royal Conservatory of Music .

She is married to Canadian historian Irving AbellaIrving M. Abella born 1940 in Toronto, Ontario, is a Canadian writer, historian and academic. He specializes in Jewish Canadian history. His books have included Coat of Many Colours: Two Centuries of Jewish Life in Canada ( 1990) and None is Too Many: Can.