Galloway v. A.B. SLAPP Hearing Finale
Submissions Complete As Judge Reserves Decision On Case Proceeding To Trial
Dear Readers, after two years, one month, and one day since a SLAPP motion was filed by A.B. to dismiss the defamation suit Galloway v. A.B., 8,000+ pages of documents have been filed across three courts, dozens of cross-examinations have been conducted, twelve days of oral submissions have been prepared and presented by 18 lawyers, and yesterday at 3:58 pm in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, defence counsel completed their final reply submissions. The SLAPP motion to dismiss Galloway v. A.B. is now over for decision by the Honourable Madam Justice Elaine Adair.
In the coming week you can expect a steady stream of posts in your inbox as I go through the highlights from those 8,000+ pages of documents so you can understand the scope of what was presented, why getting to hearing took two years and how the arguments touched on everything from #MeToo, to the presumption of innocence and to lesser unexpected evidence such as a contentious cross-examination involving sexual assault allegations, The Chicago Manual of Style and the gender of actor Richard Dreyfuss’s son Ben’s puppy. (Please Note: the previous sentence is neither a typo nor a joke.)
What those 8000+ pages do not include is a single piece of evidence proving that Galloway committed sexual assault or rape. However, in addition to containing creative defences like the Dreyfuss Puppy Pronoun Punctuation Defence, which I will cover in full detail soon, they also (as previously reported) shed light on admitted lies A.B. told people at UBC to incite them to take action against Galloway, and additional coercion she applied to people at UBC that may rise to the level of extortion.
As for the final day of the hearing? In their replies to Galloway’s arguments to dismiss the motion to dismiss, defence counsel once again perpetuated the very defamations for which Galloway is suing their clients.
The last few minutes of the hearing were perhaps the most explosive of the twelve days of submissions as Madam Justice Adair pushed back hard on defence counsel Joanna Birenbaum’s proposition that no one in Canada should ever be allowed to sue anyone for defamation if the defamation in question stems from accusations of sexual assault. Although Ms. Birenbaum conceded to Madam Justice Adair that theoretically there might be a rare occasion where someone has been falsely accused of a sexual crime to the point that a defamation action could possibly be warranted.
But Ms. Birenbaum did not offer the parameters for such an action but held firm that the current case at bar did not meet her inscrutable threshold anyway, despite the fact her client has admitted to lying and contradicted her own sworn testimony after she was forced to disclose documents she fought for over a year to not hand over. More on this when I discuss why this motion took over two years to be heard. I look forward to providing the details in full so keep an eye on your inbox on Monday and sign up if you haven’t already and please spread the word.
In the meantime a new post by Truth and Consequences’ second commissioned writer, Alison Acheson has just been posted. It’s a heart-wrenching piece about ALS, grief and her own experiences at UBC Creative Writing before and after Galloway’s departure. Click here to check it out.