Supreme Court won’t review disclosure ruling in case of alleged defamation

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada will not review a judge’s decision to grant author Steven Galloway access to emails between a woman who accused him of sexual assault and staff at the University of British Columbia.

Galloway, former chair of the university’s creative writing department, sued the woman and two dozen others in 2018, alleging he was defamed by false allegations of sexual and physical assaults made by the woman and repeated by others.

The woman and two others applied to have the lawsuit thrown out under the province’s Protection of Public Participation Act, which aims to protect critics on matters of public interest from lawsuits intended to silence or punish them.

Meantime, Galloway requested access to documentation he argued he needed to defend his case against dismissal.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered the release of emails sent to the university’s president and a professor, documentation the woman provided to back up her allegation and other records.

In April, the B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed the woman’s challenge of the ruling, prompting her application to the Supreme Court of Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 13, 2020.

The Canadian Press