Act in Haste, Repent At Leisure

"My position at the time was that an allegation was all that  person should require to come to the conclusion that an accused person was guilty, and I accused those who disagreed with this of doing harm to survivors."

"I should have understood that supporting people who come forward about sexual violence does not require, and cannot justify, acting in ways that may lead others to conclude that unproven allegations are true, or failing to give the person accused a fair opportunity to be heard and considered."

"I should not have listened only to one side, or allowed that one-sided understanding to shape  my communications, my tweets, or my participation in the process. I also should not have allowed my own past negative experiences with others, or my experience learning about and working on issues of sexual violence, to cloud my judgment or prevent me from giving Mr. Galloway fair consideration." 

Chelsea Rooney, author, UBC creative writing program alumna

People walk past large letters spelling out UBC at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver on Nov. 22, 2015. The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal by accusers of former University of British Columbia writing professor Steven Galloway, paving the way for his defamation case to go to trial. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

 

The 2015 event that caused a talented and admired professor of creative writing at University of British Columbia to be fired, illustrated starkly the delicacy with which women who accuse men of sexual impropriety are handled, as opposed to such allegations with total lack of proof which can taint an accused man for life whether or not he happened to be guilty or merely the victim of a spiteful female scheme to embarrass and ultimately destroy a man's reputation, social standing and employment.

 

By no means should charges of rape be handled with anything other than professional detachment to a criminal act which, when and if proven in a court of law, that calls for appropriate justice to be meted out in a prison sentence. By no means should a charge of this serious social and personal assault be taken as truthful revelation without evidence of some nature as proof of the crime having been committed. Yet a man totally innocent of the charge, without trial, could be consigned to the deepest heat of social condemnation.

 

Believing all women who come forward with charges of sexual misconduct against a male is almost visceral, and that is because most if not many women have at some time in their lives experienced inappropriate and sometimes criminal sexual abuse at the hands of a male relative, friend, acquaintance, co-worker, stranger in a casual or life-altering event or series of events that dissipates trust in the innocent intentions of all males.

 

Chelsea Rooney is the author of Pedal, a debut novel published with Caitlin Press and a finalist for the 2015 Amazon.ca First Novel Award, co-presented with The Walrus. Pedal was also nominated for the 2015 ReLit Award. Bio

 

Chelsea Rooney had no doubt in her mind that a professor she knew personally and had reason to have trust in, had sexually assaulted another University of British Columbia student in his class, as that student, unidentified by name but referred to as 'A,B,' claimed to have occurred years beforehand. Her conviction, without proof, prior to investigation -- which in the end was found by a retired judge whom the university tasked to investigate found unsubstantiated -- led her to embark on a mission to question other students to probe for similar abuse claims among them.

 

Instagram

She in fact, led a campaign to completely isolate and disengage Steven Galloway, as a sexual offender, someone persona-non-grata in polite society, undeserving of trust, much less that of a respected member of the professoriate at a well-regarded university. She took the step of urging others who "either experienced or witnessed incidents that can speak directly to our subject's character" to contact the media. The university obliged by suspending Professor Galloway, while formally extending their appreciation to his accuser, Rooney.

 

The investigation, conducted in 2016 by a retired judge, concluded following Professor Galloway's firing by the university, that the sexual assault had not in fact occurred. Further, that the additional complaints that Rooney had presented were "without merit". This was a story that had garnered national attention and with it, national condemnation. Of a kind no university seeks, and which no doubt helped spur its decision to terminate the accused man in June of 2016.

 

Now, Chelsea Rooney has second thoughts all those years afterward, referring to "serious and unproven allegations". Whereas when Professor Galloway had been cleared of wrongdoing through the investigation, she had stated to news media that the investigation report felt to her like "yet another slap in the face", for women whose claims of sexual violation should be believed unconditionally.

 

One can only wonder whether this complete alteration in Professor Galloway's one-time chief accuser's orientation and drive for punitive justice to be done could have anything much to do with the defamation lawsuit launched by former Professor Galloway in 2018 to clear his reputation. A trial date of October 5 was set. A pre-trial court hearing in 2021 on the lawsuit aired details in her determined damning of a man with whom she had positive professional experience with. And with whom she has settled. Her current disclaimers a matter of overdue conscience.

 

Writer Steven Galloway is pictured in his office at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver on March 31, 2014. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

"I am aware that prior to A.B. making these allegations, Mr. Galloway considered me a friend and had on multiple occasions gone out of his way to help me, with nothing asked in return."

"In my 2014 book I thanked him as someone 'who encouraged me to commit to writing at a very important time in my life'. That was a true statement." 

"I know that nothing I say now can undo the harm or give back the years affected by these events, but I am genuinely sorry for the part I played in causing that harm."

Chelsea Rooney, Steven Galloway accuser