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Author and former University of British Columbia professor Steven Galloway and his wife Katie Wagner leave B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 6.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The University of British Columbia creative writing student who accused bestselling author Steven Galloway of sexual assault first complained to campus security about sexual harassment by him two years before she took her allegations to the university’s administration, the B.C. Supreme Court heard Tuesday.
Stephen Bohnen, a 77-year-old former community relations officer with the school’s security department, testified that he interviewed the woman when she came by the public counter at his office in July, 2013.
The woman, known as A.B. because of a publication ban, complained that Mr. Galloway was sexually harassing her by repeatedly giving her scotch in his office and propositioning her for sex, Mr. Bohnen testified during a defamation trial brought by Mr. Galloway against A.B. and three others.
“[A.B.] stated there had been a clearly sexualized atmosphere and more than one intimation of invitations to sex by Galloway,” the court heard Mr. Bohnen wrote in his report.
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The author and former head of UBC’s creative writing program was suspended in November, 2015, amid an investigation into A.B.’s allegations.
He was dismissed the following year after a retired judge hired by UBC to investigate A.B.’s claims found he had sexually harassed her and found other instances of misconduct. The judge did not find that he sexually assaulted the woman.
In 2018, Mr. Galloway’s original defamation suit was filed against two dozen defendants, but only A.B. and three others remain: Mandi Gray, Dana Kagis and Glynnis Kirchmeier.
The case has wound its way through various courts over the years as judges have had to weigh whether those accused of sexual assault have a right to sue their accusers for defamation. In 2024, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a lower-court decision that said someone accused of rape must be allowed to defend their reputations in court.
Daniel Burnett, lead counsel for Mr. Galloway, asked Mr. Bohnen if he told A.B. that the professor was a “serial predator.”
The court has heard that in a letter to the UBC administration in November, 2015, A.B. complained that Mr. Galloway had sexually harassed and sexually assaulted her. She said in the letter that Mr. Bohnen made the comment when she first went to him with her complaint.
“Well, I certainly can’t remember anything like that,” Mr. Bohnen responded to Mr. Burnett.
Mr. Burnett also stated that the report mentioned the file being referred to the local detachment of the RCMP, which opened a case.
The B.C. Supreme Court has not yet heard what happened to that 2013 investigation by the Mounties or why her three allegations of sexual assault were put to school administrators two years later.
A.B.’s ex-husband told the court on Monday that while they were together, she told him the novelist had put his hands around her neck when the pair were on Mr. Galloway’s sailboat. The ex-husband testified that at that time A.B. refused to file a police report or let him talk to Mr. Galloway, instead telling her partner that she would handle the situation. He said he later learned that she had an extramarital affair with Mr. Galloway from 2011 to 2013.
Mr. Galloway was never charged with any offence and has always denied he sexually assaulted A.B.
A.B. is not testifying and, at the start of the trial, her lawyer Arden Beddoes told the court that she was withdrawing her defences of truth and fair comment – but not admitting that she spread lies about her former romantic partner. Mr. Beddoes said she had tried to kill herself twice this year because of the stress of the ordeal.
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Mr. Burnett closed his submissions Tuesday morning by reading into the record sections of a 2019 cross-examination of A.B. from a related proceeding.
He read a portion from that transcript where A.B. acknowledged that her e-mail in November, 2015, to UBC’s administrators included a false claim that the legal team for CBC’s the fifth estate TV news program had “vetted” her allegations against Mr. Galloway.
“Yes, in fact, it was false and it was made because I desperately wanted UBC to go forward with an investigation, and I was being pressured,” she said in the transcript.
“I had no legal counsel. I had to find a way to convince them to go forward with the investigation and this was my last desperate e-mail to make sure there was an investigation to protect me from the person who had strangled and raped me.”
“I don’t regret what I said because I needed to keep myself alive and safe, and there are no easy ways or safe ways for women to get their cases brought forward and investigated.”