For Immediate Release
August 16, 2004
WINNIPEG – Madam Justice Rosalie Abella has been named the 2004 recipient of the Walter S. Tarnopolsky Human Rights Award.
“Justice Abella’s entire life has revolved around the cause of human rights,” said Ed Ratushny, president of the International Commission of Jurists (Canadian Section). “She has shaped Canadian policy in equality rights, and her work has also had a profound impact on human rights law and policy outside Canada. Her contributions to society as a lawyer, teacher, commissioner, and judge have always been shaped by her profound humanity.”
Justice Abella was the sole Commissioner and author of the 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, in which she created the term and concept of “employment equity,” a new strategy for reducing barriers in employment faced by women, Aboriginal people, racialized minorities, and persons with disabilities. The Supreme Court of Canada, in its first decision dealing with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, adopted the theories of equality and discrimination she developed in her report, forming the basis for Canadian human rights case law. The governments of Canada, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, and South Africa have implemented the report.
After graduating from the University of Toronto Law School in 1970, she practised civil and criminal litigation until, at the age of 29, she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court in 1976, making her Canada's youngest, first pregnant, and first Jewish female to be appointed to the Bench.
She chaired the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Ontario Law Reform Commission, and the Study on Access to Legal Services by the Disabled, and was a member of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Premier’s Advisory Committee on Confederation, the Ontario Public Service Labour Relations Tribunal, the University of Toronto Academic Discipline Tribunal, and the Canadian Judicial Council’s Inquiry on Donald Marshall, Jr. She has been a judge on the Ontario Court of Appeal since 1992.
Justice Abella has been heavily involved in Canadian judicial education, organizing the first judicial seminar in which all levels of the judiciary participated, the first judicial seminar in which persons outside the legal profession were invited to participate, the first national education program for administrative tribunals, and the first national conference for Canada’s female judges. She was a visiting professor on the Faculties of Law at the University of Toronto and McGill University Law School, and lectures extensively in Canada and internationally. She also holds 20 honourary degrees from universities across the country, and has authored over 70 articles and written or edited four books. She was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
The Walter S. Tarnopolsky Award recognizes a resident of Canada who has made an outstanding contribution to domestic or international human rights.
The award is presented at the annual meeting of the International Commission of Jurists (Canadian Section), held on Monday, Aug. 16, at the Canadian Legal Conference in Winnipeg.
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CONTACT: Patricia Whiting, International Commission of Jurists, 500–865 Carling Ave., Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5S8. Tel (613) 237-2925 ext. 125. E-mail: patw@cba.org
