Writer files defamation suit over sex-assault allegations
The former chair of the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia is suing a woman, claiming she falsely accused him of sexual and physical assaults.
Steven Galloway’s lawsuit also accuses two dozen other people of repeating the accusations on social media.
The lawsuit filed by the novelist in the B.C. Supreme Court claims he was defamed and suffered damage to his reputation. It asks for damages and an injunction preventing the defendants from repeating the allegations, as well as having them removed from the internet.
Galloway was suspended from the university in November 2015 while an investigation was completed into what the school said were serious allegations of misconduct.
In December of that year, the university asked a former B.C. Supreme Court judge to investigate complaints against Galloway. Mary Ellen Boyd’s report, submitted in April 2016, has never been made public. Galloway was fired that June. A labour arbitration decision later ordered the university to pay Galloway $167,000 in damages for statements the school made during the process that violated his privacy rights and harmed his reputation.
However, the faculty association withdrew its claim to have Galloway reinstated to his post without giving details. The issue of whether the university had cause to dismiss the professor was no longer contested.
Galloway’s statement of claim, filed on Friday, says he had a consensual adulterous affair that lasted two years with one of the defendants. It asserts that the woman made the false allegations to “deflect blame and create a false narrative to portray herself as innocent in the affair.”
None of the allegations made in the statement of claim have been proven in court and no statements of defence have been filed.
The woman could not be reached for comment, but a lawyer who represented her previously, including during Boyd’s investigation, says no client of hers has been served with a claim.
“It appears the plaintiff took the story directly to the press,” Joanna Birenbaum said in an emailed statement.
Birenbaum directed The Canadian Press to an open letter posted online that she wrote to university president Santo Ono, asking him to release Boyd’s full report to her client.
“UBC’s refusal to disclose an unredacted copy of the Boyd Report to (the woman) is preventing her from responding to defamatory attacks on her character and causing harm and damage to her reputation,” says the letter, dated Aug. 29, 2018.
Galloway responded to a request for comment with a statement saying he was prohibited from discussing matters related to his termination. He said Birenbaum’s comments deflect attention away from his claims that the woman made multiple false and malicious allegations, “the most destructive of which includes sexual assault.”