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Author and former University of British Columbia professor Steven Galloway, back second right, and his wife Katie Wagner, front left, leave B.C. Supreme Court with two unidentified people on Oct. 6.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
A University of B.C. creative-writing professor says she regrets her role in the granting of a degree to the woman who accused bestselling author Steven Galloway of sexual harassment and sexual assault, even though the woman did not finish her mandatory graduate thesis.
Annabel Lyon told B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday that she felt pressed by a more senior colleague to sign off on the incomplete thesis.
“I regret it to this day,” she said.
Ms. Lyon was testifying in a defamation case brought by the bestselling author. She was one of two dozen defendants initially named in his lawsuit filed in 2018 alleging that his lucrative career was effectively ended by the allegations. He was never charged with a crime and has always denied the allegations.
Prof. Lyon, who is now the director of UBC’s creative-writing program, said she agreed to be the second professor to approve the partial thesis after being asked by fellow faculty member Keith Maillard. The court heard that he deemed the incomplete novel excellent enough to merit approval.
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Prof. Maillard was advising the student on her thesis and later gave her an A+ for 144 pages of a half-completed novel, which was her final requirement to graduate, according to Wednesday’s hearing.
Prof. Lyon said she recalled a phone call from Prof. Maillard, after the student submitted her incomplete draft, wherein he told his colleague: ” ’She needs to be finished, she needs to complete her degree’ and he was asking me to sign off on it.”
She added that she approved the thesis after only reading a few the pages with the proviso that the former student, who can only be identified as A.B. because of a publication ban, submit her full novel to Prof. Lyon for detailed feedback. A.B. never did.
Four months later, the trial has heard, A.B. e-mailed Prof. Maillard and described feeling at risk and “unsafe.” She alleged that she had been sexually assaulted and harassed by Mr. Galloway.
In November 2015, the university announced that it was investigating “serious allegations” against him, setting off a firestorm in Canada’s literary world. Mr. Galloway was suspended and then fired in June 2016 as head of UBC’s creative-writing program without severance because of breach of trust. News of the incident spurred a national debate over Mr. Galloway’s rights to due process versus the rights of his alleged victim.
A retired judge hired by the university to investigate the complaint found that, on a balance of probabilities, it could not be established that he committed sexual assault or assault, but that he had sexually harassed her and committed other misconduct.
Most of the defendants named in Mr. Galloway’s defamation suit have since settled, including Prof. Lyon and Prof. Maillard. A.B. is one four defendants remaining.
A.B. is not testifying and, at the start of the trial, her lead lawyer Arden Beddoes told the court that he was withdrawing her defences of truth and fair comment, but his client does not admit that she spread lies about Mr. Galloway. Mr. Beddoes has said that she had tried to kill herself twice this year because of the stress of the case.
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Prof. Lyon testified Wednesday that UBC had no policy at the time dictating what constitutes a complete graduate thesis in the creative-writing department and that, after this “one-off” incident with A.B., she crafted one herself.
“I wrote subsequent policies so that nobody could ever be in this position again,” she said.
Wednesday’s testimony provided more information about how the university treated A.B. before and after her allegations. A month before Mr. Galloway was dismissed, the court recently heard, UBC awarded A.B. a postgraduation bursary of $30,000, to which she was not entitled.
Prof. Lyon was asked Wednesday about an e-mail that she sent university administration after the 2016 publication of a letter signed by dozens of prominent writers, including Margaret Atwood, calling on UBC to afford Mr. Galloway due process.
Court heard that Prof. Lyon wanted to issue a statement saying she believed in the students that complained about Mr. Galloway.
“The university is losing a PR war here and they need someone to put a human face on their side of things,” Prof. Lyon wrote in the e-mail, which was read in court by Daniel Burnett, lead counsel for Mr. Galloway.
Prof. Lyon testified that she was trying to protect her creative-writing students who had complained and were still in the program.
“I know there was a real feeling of despondency amongst the students that they had not been heard, and I wanted to reassure them that, as a unit, we had heard them,” she said.
Also on Wednesday, Justice Neena Sharma denied The Globe and Mail’s request to access an exhibit filed earlier in the court proceedings involving a draft statement of claim that A.B. allegedly intended to file against the university for $3-million for negligence, breach of contract and other reasons. The judge said the lawsuit threat may be discussed during closing arguments in the coming days.