Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella will receive a human rights award from Chicago’s Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. The 70-year-old jurist has twenty honorary degrees and several awards for her impressive body of work.
This latest citation is awarded “for courage in the face of adversity,” according to a news release. “Justice Abella has stood throughout her judicial career for the enforcement of human rights principles for all Canadians, regardless of their gender, ethnicity or station in life,” said Ambassador David Scheffer, director of the law school’s Center for International Human Rights.
‘Pioneer’ judge
Abella is called a pioneer. At age 29, she was the first Jewish woman and the youngest person to be appointed a judge in Canada. Later she was the first Jewish woman appointed to the Supreme Court.
Among her many accomplishments she served on the Ontario Human Rights Commission, was the sole chair of a Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, and she took part in a landmark ruling on survivor benefits for same sex partners. There is much more.
Born of Holocaust survivors
The news release notes Abella was born of two Holocaust survivors. Her father served as head of legal services in displaced person’s camps before the family emigrated to Canada in 1950.
He was barred from becoming a lawyer because he was not a citizen. Abella was inspired to become a lawyer herself. By the age of ten, Abella was an accomplished pianist, winning many awards and making several television appearances.
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