The uOttawa Public Law Centre, the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice and The Advocates Society hosted a two-day conference in May to mark the retirement of the Honorable Rosalie Silberman Abella from the Supreme Court of Canada.
Entitled A Life of Firsts but dubbed Abellafest 2022, the in-person and on-line event featured more than 60 speakers from the Supreme Court, academia and civil society and examined Abella's life and career both before and after joining the Supreme Court. A "fireside chat" between Abella and journalist and author Paul Wells ended the event.
Justice Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004, the first Jewish woman appointed to Canada’s top court. Her remarkable life has been a series of firsts. Born in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany, she had a storied career before joining Canada’s top court - as a practicing lawyer, a family court judge (the first pregnant person and first refugee appointed to the judiciary in Canada), law reformer (Chair of the Ontario Law Reform Commission), labour adjudicator (Chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board), law professor (McGill Faculty of Law), appeal court justice and commission of inquiry head (her 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment created the term and concept of “employment equity.”)
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 Society in 2018 and in 2020, she was awarded the Knight Commander‘s Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Germany. She is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music, has judged the Giller Literary Prize, moderated a Prime Ministerial Leader’s Debate and spellbound audiences around the globe with her oratory. She has left her imprint on the Supreme Court of Canada and on the law in Canada and around the world.
Public Law Centre co-director Vanessa MacDonnell, Visiting Fellow Stephen Bindman and Gerald Chan of Stockwoods LLP were the conference chairs.
An opening reception at the National Gallery of Canada directed guests to nine works of art from the Gallery's collection that reflected Abella's life journey in different ways.
A gala dinner attended by more than 200 friends and admirers was capped by a young violinist from the Royal Conservatory of Music, accompanied on piano by his mother, serenading Abella with a selection from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.
A book of the papers presented at the conference will be published next year.
The full program is available at https://ciaj-icaj.ca/wp-content/uploads/events/2019/05/life-of-firsts-abella-conference_en.pdf (PDF, 476.79 KB)