Steven Galloway could have done more to restore reputation, expert testifies

VANCOUVER — A public relations expert told British Columbia Supreme Court that author and former University of B.C. professor Steven Galloway could have done more to rehabilitate his reputation after he was accused of rape more than a decade ago.

Norman Stowe, a reputation rehabilitation, public relations and crisis management expert, testified on Thursday in the trial of Galloway’s defamation lawsuit against his accuser and others who published unproven allegations against him.

“To be blunt, I’ve worked with clients who had far less going for them than Mr. Galloway in terms of the capacity to go out and defend your reputation or rehabilitate your reputation,” said Stowe, a managing partner of the public affairs company Pace Group.

Stowe produced a report for the defence of Galloway’s accuser, a woman known as A.B., whose name is subject to a publication ban. He told the court that while he had never worked on a file involving a rape accusation, efforts to rehabilitate someone’s reputation involve the same steps regardless of the nature of the issue.

The trial heard Stowe’s report included examples of other high-profile people who suffered reputational damage, such as Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart and Tiger Woods, but he agreed under cross-examination that allegations against them were not in the same “universe” as a rape accusation.

A.B.’s defence does not allege she was sexually assaulted, rather that she reported the alleged assaults.

Galloway denies the assault claims, and alleges they destroyed his career.

The court previously heard from a publishing industry expert who said the author of the hit novel “The Cellist of Sarajevo” had potentially lost millions of dollars in future income.

Stowe said some of Pace Group’s high-profile clients have included the Vancouver Airport Authority following the death of Robert Dziekanski — who died after being tasered by Mounties at the airport in 2007 — and BC Ferries after the sinking of the Queen of the North.

“We have also worked on several cases that involve sexual activities. I can’t say much more than that,” he said.

The court heard Stowe believed Galloway had a “strong path to reputational rehabilitation” and could have resumed some version of his writing career.

But he conceded under questioning by Galloway’s lawyer, Daniel Burnett, that his report incorrectly stated the author had made no efforts to do so.

Burnett said Stewart, Clinton and Woods were all “guilty” of what they’d been accused of, and asked Stowe about a different approach to restoring the reputation of someone who is innocent.

Stowe said he didn’t have access to some documents in Galloway’s case, including the full report by a retired judge, Mary Ellen Boyd, who found the assault allegations against the author unsubstantiated.

Stowe told the court Boyd’s report could have been used as leverage in rehabilitating Galloway’s reputation, along with support from those in the literary community who had publicly called for due process for the author.

But Stowe said “there was no plan, no linking these things together to help him get past this and rehabilitate so he could reclaim some part of his personal life and professional life.”

Stowe believed Galloway had many opportunities “to bring all these things together, but that never seemed to materialize,” he said.

He said he thought the author had “sort of given up,” thinking “his life was over.”

He agreed that rape allegations are “powerful.” But he said Galloway’s attempts to refute the claims against him were not part of a plan to rehabilitate his reputation, and the efforts “sort of started and then stalled.”

Stowe said he didn’t review social media posts about Galloway, which Burnett said came in “waves … over years and years” leading to the defamation lawsuit.

Stowe’s testimony concluded Thursday and defendant Mandi Gray was next to take the stand.

Galloway alleges Gray, an assistant professor at Trent University in Ontario, defamed him in a series of social media posts.

Several people originally named as defendants in Galloway’s lawsuit, filed in 2018, have settled with him and offered public apologies.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2026

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press