Novelist and former University of British Columbia professor Steven Galloway has won a years-long battle to have his defamation lawsuit proceed against a woman who says her raped her, which Galloway denies. People walk past large letters spelling out UBC at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver on Nov. 22, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER – Novelist and former University of British Columbia professor Steven Galloway has won a years-long battle to have his defamation lawsuit proceed against a woman who says he raped her, which Galloway denies.
The B.C. Court of Appeal decision was a high-profile test of Canada’s laws aimed at protecting people from so-called SLAPP suits, or strategic lawsuits against public participation.
Wednesday’s ruling upholds an earlier decision by a judge who rejected the argument that all claims of sexual assault are protected, saying that would rule out any legal consequences for publicly calling someone a rapist, with “no obligation ever to prove the statement was true.”
The B.C. Supreme Court had previously made a series of rulings against Galloway’s accuser, whose name is covered by a publication ban, along with several of her supporters who repeated her allegations.
Galloway filed his defamation lawsuit in 2018, saying his reputation had been ruined by false claims from the woman referred to as A.B., that he raped her while she was a graduate student more than a decade ago.
The defendants sought to have the legal action thrown out under B.C.’s Protection of Public Participation Act, which aims to protect people from lawsuits that would silence them on matters of public interest.
In a statement reacting to the B.C. Appeal Court decision made Wednesday, Galloway said he is “relieved and thankful” that the lawsuit will be moving to trial.
“All I have asked for is the chance to prove in a court of law that the allegations made against me, and repeated as truth by the defendants in this case, are false,” he said in the statement provided by his lawyer, Dan Burnett.
Galloway is the author of several novels, including “The Cellist of Sarajevo,” which was longlisted for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
He was chair of the University of B.C.’s creative writing program before he was suspended in November 2015 and fired the following June after an investigation into what the school described as serious allegations of misconduct.
But in 2018, Galloway was awarded $167,000 in damages after an arbitrator found communications by the university about the situation breached Galloway’s privacy rights, and then $60,000 more over further privacy breaches and ongoing harm to his reputation.
In December 2021, the B.C. Supreme Court rejected arguments from Galloway’s accuser and others that if his lawsuit was allowed to proceed it would stifle reporting of sexual offences,
A panel of three Appeal Court judges unanimously upheld the ruling.
In their written reasons, the judges echoed a decision from a separate case in Ontario, saying “(unlike) SLAPP suits, which reek of the plaintiff’s improper motives “¦ this litigation smells of a genuine controversy (and it) should be tried on its merits.”
Requiring comments to be “tailored” to avoid defaming someone “does not quash public debate,” said the decision from justices Elizabeth Bennett, Anne MacKenzie and Peter Voith.
None of the allegations in Galloway’s lawsuit, nor those of his accuser, have been tested in court.
In her 2021 ruling, B.C. Supreme Court judge Elaine Adair said allowing Galloway’s claims to proceed does not presuppose a particular outcome before a trial judge.
“Rather, what has happened is that Mr. Galloway will have the opportunity to present his claims for adjudication in a trial,” Adair wrote.
A lawyer for A.B., Joanna Birenbaum, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2024.
