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Author and former University of British Columbia professor Steven Galloway leaves B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Bestselling author Steven Galloway acknowledged his two-year affair with a University of B.C. creative writing student was “inappropriate, ill-advised and stupid” during testimony on the second day of a trial where this woman and three others are defending themselves against accusations that they later defamed him.
Mr. Galloway told B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday that he believed the relationship had ended amicably. And so, he said, he was surprised to learn shortly afterward that his former partner had filed a sexual harassment complaint with the school’s administration – an allegation which would eventually publicly explode and torpedo his personal and professional life.
“Without being crass, there was enthusiastic and ongoing consent at all times,” he said when his lawyer Daniel Burnett asked him about their sex life.
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The high-profile trial is more than a decade in the making. UBC’s announcement of a formal investigation of “serious allegations” involving Mr. Galloway in 2015 led to an online firestorm over the CanLit luminary’s rights to due process versus the rights of his alleged victim. UBC fired Mr. Galloway in 2016, but a retired judge hired by the university to investigate the complaint found that, on a balance of probabilities, it could not be established he committed sexual assault or assault.
He was never charged by police. In 2018, he sued nearly two dozen people for defamation, saying they had falsely claimed online that he had sexually and physically assaulted the woman. She is known publicly as A.B. because her identity is protected by a publication ban until 45 days after Justice Neena Sharma makes her final judgment.
Only A.B. and three other defendants remain: Mandi Gray, Dana Kagis and Glynnis Kirchmeier.
At the start of proceedings Monday, A.B.’s lawyer Arden Beddoes told the court she was withdrawing her defences of truth and fair comment – but not admitting she spread lies about her former romantic partner – explaining that she had tried to kill herself twice in recent months because of the stress of the lawsuit. She is not testifying.
During Tuesday’s afternoon court session in Vancouver, Mr. Galloway’s lawyer directed the 51-year-old to explain how the student first began joining him for post-lecture drinks with a fellow professor in one of their offices before the pair began a sexual relationship around April 2011.
Mr. Galloway testified that he and A.B. initially had fun together, even if he now realizes their relationship was not appropriate given the power dynamic between a professor and a master’s student.
“I’d never had moments where I thought this person’s not enjoying this relationship,” he said.
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After their affair ended in April, 2013, Mr. Galloway testified, they kept texting regularly and remained cordial. But his lawyer told the court that in July of that year A.B. filed a formal sexual harassment complaint with the university, alleging that Mr. Galloway repeatedly gave her several drinks of scotch in his office and propositioned her for sex.
Upon learning of this complaint, nearly three years later during the university’s investigation, Mr. Galloway testified that he had two reactions: shock that she was complaining even as she was texting him regularly asking him to go to concerts and other social events, and a feeling that her allegations were ridiculous since their relationship had ended cordially.
He also testified how in 2013, he dealt with a similar sexual harassment complaint from A.B. against a visiting scholar. She alleged the academic, who was a candidate for a professorship, had groped and choked her in an elevator while touring the campus, Mr. Galloway testified. After hearing her account and her refusal to file a formal complaint, Mr. Galloway stated that he and two of his colleagues decided to do what they could to stop him from being hired.
“Shamefully, the three of us lowered our interview scores to the point where the candidate dropped out,” he said.
Mr. Galloway said he was about to go on stage in Dayton, Ohio, for a speaking engagement when UBC’s Dean of Arts first notified him he was being suspended in November, 2015, pending an internal review of an allegation of sexual assault.
He began his testimony detailing how he rose from an arts undergrad at his hometown college in Kamloops to become one of only a handful of Canadian authors with a New York agent, with lucrative speaking engagements across North America.
He had sold over a million copies of 2008’s The Cellist of Sarajevo across more than 30 countries and commanded as much as US$10,000 for an appearance, he testified. All of that vanished when the university’s investigation of A.B.’s allegations of sexual assault became public, the court heard.
He is expected to testify for the remainder of the week.