“Literature, Law and Personal Narratives: A Conversation with Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella”

On February 1st 2016, Professor Pascale Fournier will welcome the Honourable Rosalie Abella, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (Fauteux 147) to discuss the text that has most influenced her way of thinking and her own personal journey. “Literature, Law and Personal Narratives: A Conversation with Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella” will be a unique meeting! In 2004, Justice Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, becoming the first Jewish woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada bench. She attended the University of Toronto and graduated from its law school in 1970. Six years later, she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court (1976). She was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992. She was the sole Commissioner and author of the 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, wherein she coined the term and concept of ‘employment equity’. The theories of ‘equality’ and ‘discrimination’ that she developed in her Report were adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada in its first decision regarding equality rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedom. Justice Abella has several honorary degrees and is author and co-author of four books and over seventy-five articles. Extensively involved in judicial education, she also organized the first judges’ conference in which there was an active participation from all judiciary levels.

The text selected by the Judge will be announced on the day of the conference… Don’t miss this conversation! We hope many of you will join us.

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