The Decibel - The repercussions and fallout from the Steven Galloway case

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

The case of Steven Galloway caused a firestorm when it was first made public, and it continues to this day. Galloway was fired from the University of British Columbia after allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies. The situation divided Canadian authors, and the public more broadly. Now, there’s been a development.The Globe’s Marsha Lederman has reported on this extensively. Today, she tells the story of how we got to this moment, the implications of this case, and the effect it’s had on the people involved.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail]

Last week, there was a big development in a widely discussed and contentious case in Canada. The case of Stephen Galloway. Galloway is an author and former professor and chair of the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia. He was fired back in 2016 after allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies. The situation caused a huge firestorm at the time. It divided the Canadian literary community and the public writ large. And it's still going on today. Now, a recent court ruling has reignited heated debate around this case.

Today, I'm joined by Marsha Lederman. She's covered this extensively for The Globe as a reporter. She's now an opinion writer and has continued to follow this case. She'll tell us the story of how we got to this moment, the potential implications of this case, and the effect it's had on the people involved. I'm Maina Karaman-Wilms, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. Marsha, thank you for being here.

Oh, thanks for having me. So I know that you covered this case as a reporter for The Globe, and we're going to get into what's happened recently, but I really think we need to go back a bit first because this is a long story. So where does it start? Well, it started for the public in November of 2015. This shocking memo went out to the creative writing program at UBC. So to students, faculty, staff, and it was also posted on the program's website. And this memo said that Stephen Galloway, who was the head of the program, had been suspended pending an investigation because of serious allegations.

Now, Galloway was, as I say, the chair of the program, very charismatic, popular, and also very successful as a novelist, probably best known for his novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo. So, this memo goes out, no details about what those allegations are, other than to say that they were serious. But the memo did say that student safety was the primary concern, that counseling was available as well. Even though it made the point that an investigation was going to take place, that no findings of wrongdoing had been found or made, you can imagine what kind of rumor mill a memo like this would generate. Everyone was talking about it, speculating what these allegations were, not just in the program, but in Canadian literature, can lit. And even more widely than that, I would say Stephen Galloway became almost a household name in the worst possible way.

And so UBC did hire a retired judge to look into this. What did we learn about the allegations then against Galloway? Okay, well, it took a long time to learn what those allegations were, because it was only through bits and pieces that leaked to the media. But we eventually learned that the most serious complaints had been made by a graduate student, and they were allegations of sexual assault, assault, and sexual harassment. The main complainant, this woman, is known as AB because her identity is protected under a court order. So Stephen Galloway says he and A.B. had a two-year affair.

It was a relationship and it was consensual. And then A.B. says it wasn't consensual. This was not a consensual affair. There were other complaints and they had to do more with favoritism in the classroom, caustic remarks that Galloway had allegedly made, that sort of thing. But the main complaint was made by AB. So, going back to 2015, the university hired a retired judge, Mary Ellen Boyd, as an independent investigator to assess the case. So, her decision was delivered in April of 2016. It wasn't made public at the time, but we later learned that on the most serious charges, using what's known as a balance of probabilities, she could not substantiate the allegations of sexual assault or assault. But she did find that the relationship was inappropriate,

thus amounted to sexual harassment. And she found that Galloway had made, this is a quote, increasingly inappropriate sexual comments and advances towards the woman over a number of months, she said, in late 2010 and early 2011. I should mention here that Galloway was never charged criminally. And in fact, the police were never involved. AB did not file a complaint with police. This was just an investigation that was done by the university here. That's right. Okay. And then in the summer of 2016, Galloway was fired by UBC. So what did the university say about why he was fired? So the university released a statement saying that he had

been fired due to an irreparable breach of trust. And what the university said was a record of misconduct. And this statement, followed by another statement to the media made by the university said was a record of misconduct. And this statement, followed by another statement to the media made by the university or a university official, resulted in two fines, two separate fines totaling more than $200,000 that the university had to pay to Galloway for contravening his privacy rights and causing harm to his reputation. And so what has Galloway said about these allegations against him? Oh, he denies them forcefully. Absolutely. He says it was an affair. He released a statement through his lawyer in 2016 saying it was a consensual affair and he apologized for the behavior.

He was married to someone else at the time, as was A.B. And as you alluded to a little earlier, Marcia, I mean, this whole thing caused a huge firestorm at the time. It was incredibly divisive, especially within the world of Canadian lit, CanLit, and among CanLit authors. What happened? Oh, my goodness. It was an absolutely toxic situation. And I would suggest that it remains a toxic situation. But back at the time, just think of the context, all right? Jian Gomeshi had been charged criminally, and he was acquitted at trial in March of 2016. And that was the time when Galloway was being investigated and just a few months before he was fired. So that was very much in the air.

Yeah. And just to remind people, Gian Gomeschi, of course, was that CBC host who was accused of sexual misconduct. So this was all happening kind of at a similar time as this. Exactly. This was in the run-up to the explosion of the Me Too movement. So this was the environment that this was happening in. And then something else happened after that took this from toxic to nuclear. And that was a group of writers issued an open letter

calling for due process for Stephen Galloway, saying the university had mishandled this. And the letter was said to have been written by Joseph Boyden, another very successful novelist at the time. And it was signed by a long list of, you know, kind of candlelit luminaries. And they included Margaret Atwood, who has very publicly defended Galloway in his quest to clear his name. So this letter went out, and it caused a firestorm. It became known as the UBC Accountable Letter, I should say, and it was highly criticized on social media, on Twitter, Facebook posts, huge arguments back and forth. And then a counter

letter was issued criticizing the UBC accountable letter and the authors who signed it. And this was signed by other authors who are active in Canadian literature. So there was a very polarizing divide that erupted from this. People on all sides, though, were actually really critical of the way that the university, that UBC handled this whole situation. Why is that? Well, start with the memo, issuing a memo saying there were serious allegations, and then doing media interviews about this as people at UBC did, that's highly unusual. There are, especially right now in this climate, a lot of allegations that come forward in a workplace environment, and public statements are not issued about them. So then UBC officials made the statement, did these interviews, and then

they said no more interviews. Cone of silence descended, and we're going to just deal with this confidentially in-house, which is what should have been done in the first place. But it was too late. The horse was way out of the barn, and the rumor mill had been fueled like crazy. Stephen Galloway's name was Mud. It didn't matter what people knew or didn't know. And then on the other side, some of the complainants against Stephen Galloway felt that the university had also mishandled the process on their end. And they include the main complainant who has said she had very negative experiences when dealing with UBC's equity office. There were also concerns around a highly unusual secret meeting that was held at a professor's house on a Sunday where the allegations were discussed.

And also the fact that a former student was asked, she says, to approach others who might have a complaint against Galloway and was even given a form letter by the university at one point to distribute to possible complainants. So, I mean, this is my opinion here, but this was just an absolute mess. And of course, at the center of all this, right, there's very real people here who are being affected. So, Stephen Galloway and, of course, the woman who accused him. I guess I'm just wondering, Marcia, how has all of this affected their lives? At one point, he was cleaning pools to make a living. In 2018, he gave an interview to Gary Mason, our colleague at The Globe. And in that interview, he said he has contemplated suicide many, many times. I think he said gone through terrible things, a terrible time. She says her mental health has suffered enormously and she too has contemplated suicide. So it's been a terrible time for her.

And then beyond these two people who are really the most affected at the center of this, there are so many other people whose lives have been significantly altered. I'm thinking about the former student who says she was asked to gather complaints for UBC from other students or former students. She has said that her life has been severely affected and that she couldn't write anymore. This was quite some time ago that we spoke about this. but there are so many people who have a story like that on both sides of this, actually. Certainly people at the program, faculty at UBC's Creative Writing Program. The program itself was kind of a mess for a while, I think it's fair to say. And in the Canlick community, sort of across the country and beyond, there have been so many ruptures. There are people who still aren't speaking to each other over this. And

really, in a very acrimonious way, I mean, just ask anyone trying to program a writers festival, how tricky that can be in light of all this. You can't put certain people on panels together or it's really been a terrible, terrible time for so many individuals, but also for Kenlett in general. We'll be right back. OK, so then Stephen Galloway decides to sue the people who were involved in the accusations against him. This is back in 2018. Marsha, what can you tell me about that suit? Sure. It's a civil suit. It's a defamation suit. It originally named more than 20 people, including A.B., his main accuser, as well as two professors in the creative writing program who had discussed the allegations at that meeting. And also the former student who was asked to collect other complaints. people named in this lawsuit included people who commented on the case on Twitter and also an art

critic in the U.S. who wrote about an exhibition that A.B., who was not just a writer, but also a visual artist, that she had created. Okay, so even an art exhibit is caught up in this and the people who wrote about it. So, Marsha, can you just help me understand that? Sure. The exhibition, I won't name it here because that could end up identifying A.B., but it was her exhibition and it dealt with her allegations. Although she did not name Stephen Galloway in the work, she did not name UBC, but others did make that connection public. And there is an art critic, one critic, who is based in the U.S. She is one of the people who's been sued for defamation by Stephen Galloway. And she wrote fairly extensively about this exhibit.

And the exhibit dealt with what A.B. called her quote-unquote rape narrative. What has Galloway said about this defamation case and why he's bringing it? Well, he says his reputation was ruined along with his livelihood because of these allegations, which he says were false. And I want to be very clear here. He's not suing in connection with the official reporting process at UBC. He's not suing about anything that was said in that official process. It's what was said or written outside of that process that of the faculty, the art show, and more things along those lines. So he is suing to clear his name. That's what he wants to do. So Galloway launched the suit back in 2018, but it actually hasn't even started yet. So what's been going on? Yes. Okay. So we're going to get into a little bit of legal stuff here. The reason this lawsuit has not yet gone to trial is there has been an effort by multiple defendants to have it dismissed as a SLAPP. So SLAPP, S-L-A-P-P, stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.

And it's essentially a law that protects, you know, the little guy, the little person, I should say, from being silenced by powerful entities with deep pockets, such as large corporations, very wealthy people, very powerful people, and specifically on matters of public importance. So in 2021, a lower court here in BC dismissed most of the applications and ruled that the lawsuit could go ahead for the most part with a couple of exceptions. What's new is that the ruling was appealed and last week, a higher court in a unanimous decision upheld the lower court decision, again, with a few changes. And what did the judges say about why they made this ruling, that the Galloway can sue these

people? Well, I will say that it's a very long, complicated, I think 250-page ruling, and it took me hours to read. So I'm going to try to sum it up. The biggest takeaway is that the judges agree there cannot be absolute protection for people who make accusations. Here's the quote. I'll actually read it. They say, without this option, there would be no legal consequences of any kind attached to publicly calling someone a rapist, completely outside of any formal reporting, and no obligation ever to prove the statement was true. That's actually from the initial ruling, from the 2021 ruling, and it was upheld in a unanimous three-person decision last week.

Okay, so this case can now go forward. What happens now, Marsha? Well, it could still be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. AB's lawyer has talked about that possibility. Or it might finally go to trial. I guess what kind of ramifications could there be, though, here of this case going forward? Well, for Mr. Galloway, it means he has recourse to fight these very public allegations that were made against him. But beyond that, I do see there being ramifications on a couple of fronts. I'll start with what I consider the good news as I see

it. It could serve as a deterrent to people who are thinking of making malicious accusations, false accusations against someone. But I do worry that this could serve as a deterrent for people who are considering reporting sexual assault. It's already very challenging to do so. It's a traumatizing process. Hearing that a woman was sued for defamation after she reported sexual assault against a professor could stop someone in their tracks, even though it's very clear that this lawsuit isn't about that official reporting process, but about things that were said elsewhere. I happen to know as someone who's worked as a journalist for a long time, people don't always read the coverage that thoroughly. They might see a headline saying that and think, I'm not going there. I don't need to

be sued down the line. And this is already an issue, right? Like data from the federal government says that the majority of sexual assaults are actually not reported to the police, somewhere around 60%. So this is already an issue. Oh, yeah. I've talked to a lot of people who have been sexually assaulted and have not reported or if they did report, were very nervous about it. It's invasive. It's traumatic. As I said, it can be very hard to prove, often coming down to he said, she said, even though I'm going to state again, because this is really important. This lawsuit is not about the official reporting process. It's about what happened elsewhere. But I don't think it takes much to give victims a deterrent from reporting because they're already thinking, do I want to do this? Do I want to put myself through this? It's possible that it will

serve as a deterrent. And we should say, Stephen Galloway himself did say that after this ruling, he, quote, sincerely hopes no one who has experienced sexual assault views this case as a barrier to reporting. Yes, he made that very clear. So just lastly, Marcia, I mean, you've been covering this whole thing since it started more than eight years ago now. I guess when you step back and look at everything that's happened, how do you make sense of it? How are you thinking about it all? Well, this case is a mess. I believe it was mishandled by UBC. The consequences have been really tragic for Stephen Galloway and for many other people caught up in this whose careers were ruined or tarnished by this. Friendships have been destroyed, lives ruined. It has been beyond ugly, really, really toxic, even on the periphery as someone who has just been writing about it. I have been on the receiving end of some absolutely horrible messages from both sides. And that's been awful

for me. And I'm not even part of this. I'm just writing about it. That gives you an idea of how ugly this has all been. And it has been so ugly and so sad. And I feel really sad for so many people involved in this. It's just a shame. Marcia, thank you so much for being here today. Thanks for asking about it. That's it for today. I'm Maina Karaman-Wilms.

Our producers are Madeline White, Cheryl Sutherland, and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Chung is our senior producer. And Angela Pachenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.