IN HIS OWN WORDS

In an exclusive account, author Steven Galloway reveals for the first time how shocking accusations of sexual assault devastated his career — and his life. In the fall of 2015, Galloway was suspended as chair of the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia for unspecified “serious allegations.” By the summer of 2016, he had been fired over what the university called an “irreparable breach of trust.” But last month, an arbitrator awarded Galloway $167,000, ruling that

UBC violated his privacy rights and damaged his reputation. Now, in his own words, the celebrated novelist says he will no longer be silent.

Ihave been silent for over two and a half years. At first, I was silent out of respect for the investigation undertaken by Justice Mary Ellen Boyd. Later, when I challenged the University of British Columbia’s characterization of Justice Boyd’s findings, I remained silent out of respect for the grievance process initiated by the faculty association.

I have also been silent because responding to the allegations against me is complicated, fraught from the outset and only intensified by the unbelievable maelstrom that followed.

I realize that anything I say will be used against me. I will be accused of victimblaming and discouraging victims from coming forward. The hatred and gleeful malice I have seen directed at me, my family, and anyone with the temerity to suggest I am not a monster has shattered me. I have watched as individuals who have never met me spent the past few years relentlessly attacking me, treating it all like some sort of game, a way to carve out a name for themselves. They display their false virtue like the tail feathers of a peacock.