RSA, Canada's RBG
June 18, 2021 7:56 AM Subscribe
Rosalie Abella is set to retire from the Supreme Court of Canada on July 1. Rosalie Abella was the architect of a number of advances in Canadian jurisprudence, including an influential report on employment equity and extending pension benefits to same-sex spouses. Previously
Relatedly, Trudeau just announced his pick to replace her: Mahmud Jamal, a judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal and the first person of colour to be nominated/appointed to Canada's Supreme Court. The pick has been widely celebrated in Ontario legal circles.
Edit: jinx, jacquilynne.
posted by hepta at 8:36 AM on June 18, 2021
Edit: jinx, jacquilynne.
posted by hepta at 8:36 AM on June 18, 2021
The pick has been widely celebrated in Ontario legal circles.
Echoed in Alberta legal circles. Justice Jamal is a brilliant lawyer and an excellent candidate for the court. I have to share the Questionnaire for Judicial Appointment he provided, which - to forewarn - would make virtually any lawyer in Canada feel inadequate and unaccomplished.
Justice Jamal would also be the first Muslim appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which feels like an especially significant milestone right now.
posted by ZaphodB at 8:53 AM on June 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Echoed in Alberta legal circles. Justice Jamal is a brilliant lawyer and an excellent candidate for the court. I have to share the Questionnaire for Judicial Appointment he provided, which - to forewarn - would make virtually any lawyer in Canada feel inadequate and unaccomplished.
Justice Jamal would also be the first Muslim appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which feels like an especially significant milestone right now.
posted by ZaphodB at 8:53 AM on June 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
And I've immediately got to correct myself. Justice Jamal was raised Muslim but converted to the Baha'i faith after his marriage. My apologies.
posted by ZaphodB at 9:03 AM on June 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by ZaphodB at 9:03 AM on June 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
The Supreme Court of Canada isn't perfect, but it has done some beautifully just things over the past couple of decades, and I'm tearing up a bit myself as I'm reading about one of the people whose compassion and clear thinking helped make that happen. Thanks for this post.
posted by clawsoon at 9:27 AM on June 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by clawsoon at 9:27 AM on June 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
Justice Jamal:
"I was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1967 into an Indian Muslim family of Ismailis. In the late 1960s, my family emigrated to a small village in northern England. Since I attended Anglican schools, I was raised by day as a Christian, reciting the Lord’s Prayer and absorbing the values of the Church of England, and by night as a Muslim, memorizing Arabic prayers from the Quran and living as part of the English Ismaili diaspora. ... My wife also came to Canada as a teenager, in her case as a refugee from Iran, via the Philippines, after fleeing the religious persecution of Iran’s Bahá’í community during the Iranian Revolution. Her family was also welcomed by Canada, settling in Innisfail, Alberta. I have since become a Bahá’í, attracted by the faith’s message of the spiritual unity of humankind, and we are raising our two children in Toronto’s multi-ethnic Bahá’í community."
He is all kinds of Canada.
posted by Kabanos at 10:05 AM on June 18, 2021 [11 favorites]
"I was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1967 into an Indian Muslim family of Ismailis. In the late 1960s, my family emigrated to a small village in northern England. Since I attended Anglican schools, I was raised by day as a Christian, reciting the Lord’s Prayer and absorbing the values of the Church of England, and by night as a Muslim, memorizing Arabic prayers from the Quran and living as part of the English Ismaili diaspora. ... My wife also came to Canada as a teenager, in her case as a refugee from Iran, via the Philippines, after fleeing the religious persecution of Iran’s Bahá’í community during the Iranian Revolution. Her family was also welcomed by Canada, settling in Innisfail, Alberta. I have since become a Bahá’í, attracted by the faith’s message of the spiritual unity of humankind, and we are raising our two children in Toronto’s multi-ethnic Bahá’í community."
He is all kinds of Canada.
posted by Kabanos at 10:05 AM on June 18, 2021 [11 favorites]
Rosalie Abella was the architect of a number of advances in Canadian jurisprudence, including an influential report on employment equity
So I got my first job in government as a student in the Employment Equity unit of Revenue Canada in 1999. I have spent 15 years scattered throughout my career as a senior advisor on Employment Equity. I have Judge Abella to thank for not only my career but for all the difference I've been able to make. Cheers to her.
posted by aclevername at 12:00 PM on June 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
So I got my first job in government as a student in the Employment Equity unit of Revenue Canada in 1999. I have spent 15 years scattered throughout my career as a senior advisor on Employment Equity. I have Judge Abella to thank for not only my career but for all the difference I've been able to make. Cheers to her.
posted by aclevername at 12:00 PM on June 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
Abella: “So it occurred to me that what equality really was, was acknowledging and accommodating differences. So people could be treated as an equal and not excluded arbitrarily for things that had nothing to do with whether or not they could contribute to the mainstream.”
Cheers indeed!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:25 PM on June 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
Cheers indeed!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:25 PM on June 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
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posted by jacquilynne at 8:36 AM on June 18, 2021 [7 favorites]