UBC prof testifies she acted as a 'conduit' for sex assault allegations against Steven Galloway

Anabel Lyon, director of the University of British Columbia's school of creative writing, said she believed the unfounded accusations of a former student who accused bestselling author Steven Galloway of sexual assault.

Annabel Lyon said she was Galloway's colleague when a former grad student accused him of sexual assault

Karin Larsen · CBC News

· Posted: Nov 03, 2026 11:32 PM EST | Last Updated: less than a minute ago

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The defamation trial brought by bestselling author Steven Galloway heard testimony Tuesday from the current head of the University of British Columbia's school of creative writing.

Annabel Lyon was called as the defence's first witness and testified she was Galloway's colleague and friend when a former graduate student accused him of sexual assault in November 2015. 

Galloway is suing his accuser, known as A.B., claiming she ruined his reputation and career by circulating the unfounded allegations. Three others who also shared the allegations on social media and elsewhere are defendants at the trial.

Lyon testified that she was A.B.'s secondary thesis supervisor or "reader" in 2013 when A.B. submitted an incomplete thesis for graduation. Lyon said when she expressed her concerns to A.B.'s primary adviser, Keith Maillard, she was told A.B. should pass regardless.

"I reached out to Professor Maillard and said, 'I'm not comfortable with this, it's not a complete thesis for our purposes' … He said, 'She really needs to graduate, can you please sign off on it,'" said Lyon.

"I, to this day, regret having done that." 

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Galloway testified earlier that he and A.B., who cannot be named under a publication ban, had a two-year affair while both were married that ended in 2013.

UBC first suspended Galloway in late 2015 citing "serious allegations" and later fired him.

A retired judge hired by UBC to conduct an investigation found that on a balance of probabilities he had not committed sexual assault.

The university later paid Galloway close to $240,000 after two arbitration processes. 

Lyon said she believed A.B.'s accusations and spoke to her on the phone about the claims. 

Under cross-examination, Lyon said that A.B. asked her to share the accusations, along with an assertion that she would take her story to national media if UBC didn't act against Galloway. 

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Lyon said she shared what A.B. asked her to at meetings with faculty and other high-level UBC officials. Lyon said she never attempted to verify the information, nor did she feel it was her position to "edit or curate" what A.B. told her. 

"I did as [A.B.] asked me to," said Lyon. "I saw myself as a conduit for the information."

Lyon said she also informed UBC administrators of an unsubstantiated report stating that 19 other students had complaints about Galloway. 

The report was compiled by former student Chelsea Rooney, who claimed she had been sexually harassed by Galloway. Although she was no longer a student, Rooney acted as investigator, coming up with 19 complaints in a day.

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Lyon said she shared Rooney's report at a meeting in the dean's office "because the university asked me to be that person." 

The professor was one of over 20 named defendants when Galloway filed the defamation lawsuit in 2018. She has since come to a confidential out-of-court settlement.

A handful of former defendants, including Rooney, have issued public statements of apology to Galloway.

A.B. is not testifying at the trial, and the court has heard she is not defending the alleged defamatory statements as true. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karin Larsen is a former Olympian and award-winning sports broadcaster who covers news and sports for CBC Vancouver.