When Steven Galloway answered the door of his home, he cut a forlorn figure.
Although it was the first time I’d met him, I was shocked by his wan appearance. He looked like someone who hadn’t slept in weeks, which, as it turned out, wasn’t far from the truth. In fact, it was more like months, even years, since the last time he’d gone to bed without worry.
Our meeting was on a June day in 2018. In the previous three years, his life as a celebrated author (The Cellist of Sarajevo and The Confabulist) and chair of the prestigious creative writing department at the University of B.C. had completely unravelled. His days then were often occupied by thoughts of suicide.
He had been suspended from his job at UBC on Nov. 16, 2015. Shortly after, the school sent out a notice to students, faculty and staff of the program that Mr. Galloway had been the subject of “serious allegations.”
The school’s priority, the notice said, “was the safety, health and well-being” of everyone associated with the department. It included a link to counselling services.
A bomb had been detonated.
Steven Galloway accuser will not testify in defamation trial
Soon, online rumours began circulating that Mr. Galloway was let go over rape allegations, which many believed true without a scintilla of evidence. A former student with whom the author had had an affair had alleged he’d committed sexual and physical assault during their relationship.
Chelsea Rooney, a graduate of the program, became one of the most prominent purveyors of accusations against Mr. Galloway.
She was enlisted by leading figures in the department to solicit the testimonies of others who might have been unduly harmed by Mr. Galloway.
A witch-hunt was underway.
When scores of literary figures signed an open letter asking UBC to reconsider its apparent rush to judgment regarding Mr. Galloway, it touched off a firestorm inside the CanLit world, dividing it into two camps. Those who signed the letter demanding UBC recognize the concept of due process – including literary giant Margaret Atwood – were soon mobbed on social media and otherwise ostracized by those who believed Mr. Galloway’s accuser. The level of vilification was so bad some authors who originally signed the UBC Accountable letter unsigned their names.
The whole matter became a toxic stew that swallowed up reputations.
Retired judge Mary Ellen Boyd conducted an independent investigation into the central allegations, and concluded that, on a balance of probabilities, Mr. Galloway had not committed sexual assault or physical assault. UBC was ordered to pay the author a total of $227,000 in damages.
It was after that, I went to see Mr. Galloway at his home. I listened as he described in painful detail the ordeal he’d been through. Of the exoneration he received from the Boyd report he told me: “I’ve won a moral victory, but my life is destroyed.”
After the interview was published, I received some vicious hate mail accusing me of being a rape sympathizer. Meantime, Mr. Galloway did his best to carry on with his life, taking odd jobs shovelling gravel and cleaning pools. Today he sells boats.
On Monday, a defamation case Mr. Galloway launched against several of those who spread accusations of sexual assault began in B.C. Supreme Court.
But last week there was a significant development: Ms. Rooney, one of the most high-profile promoters of the charge that Mr. Galloway was guilty of a crime, penned an extraordinary mea culpa.
Ex-defendant apologizes to Steven Galloway as defamation trial set to begin
In a version printed in the National Post, Ms. Rooney said she “unreservedly apologizes” for the pain and suffering she caused Mr. Galloway and his family.
She said she “wrongfully accused” the former department chair of rape and sexual assault and acknowledged her conduct was “reckless and deeply unfair” to him.
She said she regretted the role she played in attempting to build a case against Mr. Galloway by soliciting complaints from others, including students.
Others being sued by Mr. Galloway have also apologized but not in such a full-throated way.
Eleven have settled out of court.
Four others have gone to trial. Meantime, the former student who alleged Mr. Galloway had raped her has advised the court via her lawyer she will not testify because of “her own welfare.”
Mr. Galloway, undoubtedly, will be relieved when all this is behind him. But he will never recover what he’s lost. Not the income, nor the reputational damage. Not the deleterious, long-lasting impact on his physical and mental health and the years possibly shaved off his life. Not the harm it’s caused his family.
This will all be a book one day. A tragedy in, oh so many ways, one that looks back on a deeply unsettling time in our culture.