The former University of British Columbia (UBC) student who made allegations of sexual harassment against Steven Galloway, an author and former UBC professor, is asking for a policy that bans sexual relationships between students and teachers.
The unidentified woman, known only as “main complainant” (MC), called for the ban in an open letter addressed to Santa Ono, the university’s president, written by her lawyer and published last month.
The allegations against the creative writing professor were made in Fall 2015, which was followed by UBC issuing a press release confirming that Galloway has been suspended from his position at UBC due to serious allegations of misconduct, according to the letter.
Honourable Mary Ellen Boyd, a retired B.C. Supreme Court judge, was appointed to investigate the allegations against Galloway.
Boyd released a report in 2016 in which she said while she could not substantiate reports of sexual assault, she does accept MC’s allegations that Galloway made “increasingly inappropriate sexual comments,” according to a redacted excerpt of her report attached to the letter. Galloway was never charged by a B.C. court in this case.
The judge also stated there was a “clear power differential between the parties.”
Through her lawyer, MC said, “classrooms and graduate programs must not be ‘dating’ pools for faculty. UBC should protect its students, whether undergraduate or graduate, from the risk of sexual harassment and predation by having a bright line rule.”
MC’s letter is also asking for an unredacted copy of the Boyd Report. So far, the only party in the case with full access to the report is Galloway.
The university’s refusal to release a copy of the report by Boyd to the MC, is holding her back from “responding to defamatory attacks on her character and causing harm and damage to her reputation,” according to the letter.
Concordia’s parallel case
In January, there were sexual misconduct allegations at Concordia University against several professors from students immersed in the creative writing program, according to a previous article by the Charlatan.
Emma Healy, a former creative writing student at Concordia, wrote about her experience dating a professor, saying that although the relationship was consensual, it “grew out of a power dynamic.”
Detailing his experience working and attending Concordia, another former student, Mike Spry, wrote that “acts of sexual misconduct had been occurring for over a decade,” as quoted in the Charlatan article.
After light was shed about what was happening in the creative writing department at Concordia, the school issued new guidelines to staff and faculty regarding sexual relationships with students.
In a statement issued by the university, the guidelines said an instructor who is, or in the future might become responsible for teaching a student should avoid a romantic or sexual relationship with a student.
Student-teacher relationship policies on Canadian campuses
The University of Toronto (U of T) also has a policy in place regarding teacher-student relationships.
“A faculty member may genuinely believe that a personal relation with a student has not clouded her or his professional judgment of that student’s ability, but the appearance of bias will nonetheless persists, and any decisions the faculty member has made about that student will be open to question,” the university’s website said.
Similar to UBC’s policy, a U of T faculty member involved in a personal relationship with a student must seek the university’s approval before making decisions that will affect the student’s academic life, or “anything that may be constructed as a ‘benefit’ to that student.”
Kurt Heinrich, senior director of media relations at UBC, told the Charlatan that under UBC’s existing policies, “faculty members must avoid or declare all conflicts of interest, including those that involve consensual relationships with their students.
He did not disclose any future plans of the university or change or update these policies.
McMaster University’s office of human rights and equity services suggests that: “To prevent creating a conflict of interest, instructors should remove themselves from positions of power over students prior to engaging in romantic or sexual relationships,” according to its website.
Steven Reid, the media relations officer at Carleton, said in an email that a stand-alone policy on student-teacher relationships does not currently exist.
However, section 8 of the school’s Sexual Harassment Prevention Policy says Carleton strongly discourages sexual relationships between any teachers and their students, as these relationships may lead to common problems such as sexual harassment charges or allegations and conflict of interest, and requires disclosure of those relationships.
Mixed views on student-teacher relationships
Inaara Merani, an international development and globalization student at the University of Ottawa, said she believes student-teacher relationships should not be allowed because of the power imbalance.
“When a student is with their professor, they have a higher chance of getting special opportunities that other students don’t get,” she said. “It jeopardizes any opportunities that other students could receive, and it’s unjust and inappropriate.”
Hijaab Yahya, a law student at Carleton University, said she believes student-teacher relationships should be allowed as long as the relationship doesn’t affect the student’s academics.
“While it may be a taboo concept to date your professor, it’s not wrong because they are also human beings with desires like everyone else,” she said.
Quebec’s Bill 151
In 2017, the Quebec government passed Bill 151, an act aimed at preventing and combatting sexual violence on university and college campuses.
While British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario all passed similar legislation, one provision of the Quebec law generated the most discussion.
The provision mandates post-secondary institutions to adopt policies that govern intimate relationships between students and university employees.
A survey on sexual relations on campus, conducted by Enquête Sexualité, Sécurité et Interactions en Milieu Universitaire, or ESSIMU, a team of researchers from six universities in Quebec found that more than a third of respondents experienced sexual violence. Of that group, 30 per cent of them reported it involved a person in a position of authority; over one quarter at least one incident involving a faculty member.
Now, Quebec universities and colleges must adopt policies that will regulate those relationships by September 2019.
