Galloway defamation trial hears testimony about ‘inflated and outrageous’ email rhetoric

A former creative writing student told a B.C. Supreme Court defamation trial that she was “shocked” and “horrified” by language in a mass email from a fellow student investigating misconduct allegations against author and former UBC professor Steven Galloway. Galloway alleges he was defamed in the civil case.

Cara Woodruff, a UBC creative writing graduate, testified that she received an email from Chelsea Rooney in November 2015. Rooney was collecting complaints about Galloway. Woodruff described the email’s rhetoric as “inflated and outrageous” and said it urged recipients to contact a reporter from The Canadian Press anonymously about the allegations.

Woodruff said Rooney had told her she was speaking on behalf of a woman identified only as A.B., who was vulnerable and needed support. But A.B. had previously said she disliked and did not trust Rooney, Woodruff testified, adding that she did not understand why Rooney was “coming in like a detective.” Woodruff said she did not believe Galloway sexually assaulted A.B. and repeatedly urged her to go to police so the matter could be investigated “properly.”

Rooney publicly apologized to Galloway this month, days before the trial began. Her statement said she understood that her conduct toward him was “serious and harmful” and that she deeply regretted “contributing to the harm Mr. Galloway has suffered.” Woodruff testified Tuesday that she was “blindsided” by the allegations because she had been friends with A.B. She said it was unclear to her whether there was a criminal investigation. “It was so vague,” she said. “But it was a very complex situation. It just didn’t make sense to me.”

A.B. is not testifying at the trial. The court has heard that she is not asserting in her defence that the allegations she made against Galloway are true. Galloway, author of novels including “The Cellist of Sarajevo” and “The Confabulist,” was a tenured professor and chair of UBC’s creative writing program. He was never charged over A.B.’s allegations. Her name is protected by a publication ban, and Galloway was fired from his job.

Rooney said in her apology that the university, A.B. and faculty members had asked her to gather complaints about Galloway, but she had “no information” that the “very serious and unproven allegations” against him were true. The court also heard Tuesday from Stephen Bohnen, a former UBC community relations officer who first documented A.B.’s sexual harassment complaint against Galloway in 2013.

Galloway’s lawyer asked Bohnen about an email from A.B. that referred to a campus security chief named “Steve” and alleged he had called Galloway a “serial predator.” Bohnen said he was not the head of security. Asked whether he had used that description, Bohnen replied: “I certainly can’t remember anything like that. I have no reason to think of him as anything but a professor at the university.” Bohnen said A.B. had reported sexual harassment, not sexual assault.

Glynnis Kirchmeier, a defendant representing herself, is alleged to have defamed Galloway in a Twitter post. She questioned Bohnen about how the university handled complaints against professors. Justice Neena Sharma paused the questioning to ask how it related to the defamation case. Kirchmeier said she intended to argue that part of the downstream liability she shares with A.B. arose from UBC’s failure to handle A.B.’s report properly. She said that would help show why it was reasonable for her to believe A.B. and why distrust of a report by a former judge hired by UBC was not malicious. The report had deemed the allegations unsubstantiated. Sharma said Kirchmeier could continue, although she was not sure she fully understood the argument.

The court also heard that A.B. admitted in 2019, during cross-examination on an affidavit she had sworn, that she had falsely claimed CBC’s legal team vetted her story. Galloway’s lawyer Daniel Burnett read from a transcript in which A.B. said she made the claim because she “desperately wanted UBC to go forward with an investigation.” The transcript also recorded A.B. saying: “I don’t regret what I said because I needed to keep myself alive and safe, and there are no easy ways for safe, or safe ways for women to get their cases brought forward and investigated.”

Later Tuesday, A.B.’s lawyers argued against admitting a report by publishing industry expert Darryl Greer into evidence. Galloway alleges his writing career was destroyed after the allegations surfaced. The Canadian Press report by Darryl Greer was first published Oct. 20, 2026.