Former accuser is now the defendant
By Rosie DiManno Opinion
The “Believe Women†slogan has hardened culturally into disbelief men. But it doesn’t translate that way in a court of law, where convincing evidential proof is usually required.
A decade ago, Mandi Gray was believed by the trial judge when she accused a fellow PhD student at York University of sexual assault. That finding, wrapped around debunked rape myths, changed the judicial landscape — until the verdict was overturned.
All these years later, the assistant professor at Trent University finds herself in the witness stand again — not as the complainant but as a defendant. Because tweets she made about another man — former University of British Columbia creative writing professor Steven Galloway — were unsubstantiated and allegedly contributed to the vilification that destroyed a career.
Back in 2015, Gray accused her former (briefly) lover of sexual assault. At trial a year later, Mustafa Ururyar testified the sex was consensual and it was actually Gray who’d been the aggressor in that episode. Gray had invited Ururyar to meet her at a pub, sending a text to “Drink and then we can have hot sex.â€
Ururyar was found guilty in the judge-alone trial. But that decision was scathingly dismantled on appeal, characterized as “incomprehensible†and “illogical.†A retrial was ordered but never held because the charges were withdrawn and Ururyar signed a peace bond.
“In 2015, I was sexually assaulted,†Gray told court from the witness stand on Thursday. Then stumbled slightly. “The conviction was overturned so I’m not really sure how to talk about it.â€
That 2016 trial had received extensive media coverage and made Gray — who’d waived her right to anonymity — a heroine for victims of sexual assault. It began on the same day, in the same courthouse, where former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi was on trial for sexual assault and choking. Ghomeshi was acquitted on all five counts, the trial judge describing three claimants as “deceptive and manipulative†in their testimony.
I don’t believe most women who’ve been sexually assaulted are either deceptive or manipulative. It takes courage to pursue a case through the courts, where victims are routinely subjected to a further ordeal. But the “Believe Women†mantra that arose from the #MeToo movement theoretically flipped the concept of presumed innocence on its head. That is radically insupportable. Even accused rapists are entitled to due process.
Via her own experience and women she’s interviewed, Gray has spent years taking on a judicial system that she asserts, quite rightly, discourages victims from reporting and throws up multiple legal obstacles. She’s participated in a documentary, “Slut or Nut: The Diary of a Rape Trial,†and written a book, “Suing for Silence: Sexual Violence and the Defamation Law,†which argues that defamation lawsuits have been weaponized to intimidate and muzzle survivors.
The defamation trial that took bestselling author Steven Galloway eight years to bring into the light of a courtroom is no such thing. His lawsuit is aimed at restoring his reputation — if that’s even possible — and holding to account individuals, from fellow professors and the on-line mob of traducers, who got him fired and destroyed his career.
Gray, who was part of that mob, has continued to describe herself as a “survivor†of sexual assault — creating both a career and activist persona around it — despite the overturned conviction. I suppose anybody can describe themselves as they wish. But technically, there was no legal finding of sexual assault because of the overturned decision and withdrawal of charges.
Fast forward a decade and Gray is one of four defendants in Galloway’s lawsuit. Galloway was suspended by UBC in 2015, and then sacked in 2016, over allegations that he’d sexually assaulted a graduate student with whom he’d had a two-year affair while both were married.
Galloway, award-winning author of “The Cellist of Sarajevo,†was never criminally charged with anything. A retired judge hired by UBC to independently investigate the allegations found, on a balance of probabilities, that no sexual assault had occurred and that the claims asserted by the student — known only as A.B. — were unsubstantiated. That was in 2016. But Galloway’s life, professionally and personally, didn’t return to normal. He continued to be crucified on social media and has been psychologically unable to resume a writing career.
For years he’s fought through the courts to hold his tormentors — the authors of his reputational downfall — answerable. The defamation trial has been playing out in a Vancouver courtroom for the past month.
Which brings us back to Gray and her role in a second court proceeding that has pivoted on disproven allegations of sexual assault. While 25 individuals were named in the original defamation filing, all but four — including A.B. — have either settled with Galloway or issued apologies. Gray’s entanglement relates to five tweets she’d made about Galloway between 2015 and 2018.
Galloway has never been found to have committed sexual assault except through rumour, hearsay and online castigation.
Gray’s lawyer, Vanshika Dhawan, told court her client is no longer defending some of her online statements as responsible communications and was withdrawing the defence of qualified privilege. Gray is not defending three of the alleged instances of defamation on the platform now known as X.
“If I had the opportunity to go back in time, I would have said this using different language,†Gray admitted of the three tweets. She described them as an “error in judgment†that she regretted.
However, Gray is still defending two other tweets at issue as fair comment.
Under direct questioning, Gray recounted how A.B. had first made contact with her in the summer of 2015 — they later met in person and formed a friendship — a few months before A.B. formally filed her complaint against Galloway. “The fear that she had was palpable,†said Gray. “It will always stick with me, how fearful she was, how she cried.â€
In retrospect, though, Gray acknowledged her tweets about Galloway arose from anger and that the social media platform was no place for “nuanced thought.â€
Thoughtless and hugely damaging. This trial will determine how damaging and if a monetary value will be attached for the harm done.
Photo Caption
TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO Mandi Gray is one of four defendants in former UBC professor Steven Galloway's defamation lawsuit.
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