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VANCOUVER — The wife of author and former UBC professor Steven Galloway told a B.C. Supreme Court trial that her husband was “gutted” after being accused of rape, and became extremely distraught as he repeatedly denied the allegations by a former student that he’s now suing for defamation.
Katie Wagner told the court on Tuesday that before Galloway was accused of sexual assault, suspended, then fired from his teaching position, he was extroverted and socially active in the literary community.
She says he stopped playing piano and reading and writing after his career was derailed by the allegations, that would resurface repeatedly online after he was suspended in November 2015.
“He lost his writing career when he was accused of sexual assault, when every single time we tried to put out a different sort of thing, somebody came back and said that it was a sexual assault,” she said.
“His whole world was about the Canadian literary community.”
Justice Neena Sharma began the second day of the trial in Vancouver by granting continued anonymity to a defendant in the long-running defamation case, first filed in 2018.
The judge said the woman, referred to as A.B., has shown that identifying her would carry objective harms and specific risks, and allowing anonymity is in line with protecting the privacy and dignity of sexual assault complainants.
Sharma said the woman has withdrawn her defence of her statements against Galloway as justified, but has not admitted that her accusations are false and the court can’t make assumptions until it hears all evidence.
The court heard on Monday that the woman, a former student of Galloway’s, received hateful and vitriolic messages after she was identified in news articles related to the author’s lawsuit.
A.B. had sought an indefinite order to keep her identity under a publication ban, but Sharma’s order will expire within six weeks of a ruling in the case, although she can apply to extend it.
Sharma said A.B. is not participating in the trial due to her fragile mental state, which has included suicide attempts, though she’s shown “resilience” dealing with past proceedings before the trial.
The court has heard from both Galloway’s and A.B.’s lawyers about their clients’ mental health struggles, including suicide attempts, in the years since the accusations became public.
Galloway’s defamation lawsuit was originally filed in 2018 against numerous defendants who allegedly defamed him online and in other forums by repeating unproven allegations of rape.
The court has heard that four defendants remain.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2026.
Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press
