On Wednesday, a feminist launched yet another attack from feminists on Margaret Atwood, the author of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” for signing a letter in November 2016 calling for an independent investigation into the University of British Columbia’s firing of Professor Steven Galloway, who had been accused of sexual assault and harassment by a student.
That prompted this response:
The letter had stated:
In December 2015, the University commissioned former BC Supreme Court Judge Mary Ellen Boyd to undertake an independent investigation of the allegations against Professor Galloway. In June of 2016, subsequent to the investigation, the University terminated Professor Galloway’s employment without severance and without reference to the original allegations.
The University has refused to make the findings of Justice Boyd’s report public, and appears to have misrepresented the findings of the report in its public statement issued June 22, 2016. Both a statement from the UBC Faculty Association and the report of an independent journalist who had access to the Boyd report have since revealed that all but one of the allegations investigated, including the most serious one, were unsubstantiated.
The University then claimed that other allegations unrelated to the subject of Justice Boyd’s investigation were involved in its decision to terminate Professor Galloway’s employment. It has not, however, made a clear public statement to this effect, nor has it apologized for the harm its previous actions have done to Professor Galloway’s reputation.
Professor Galloway himself has been denied the right to speak publicly while his case is being grieved. The University’s willingness to allow the suspicions it has created to continue to circulate is surprising and appears to be contrary to the principles of fairness and justice that should guide any distinguished academic institution.
The University’s conduct in this matter is of great concern. We, the undersigned, respect the principle of protection for individuals who wish to bring complaints. We also respect the right of an accused to fair treatment. There is growing evidence that the University acted irresponsibly in Professor Galloway’s case. Because the case has received a great deal of public attention, the situation requires public clarification.
Cox was not the first feminist to attack Atwood for standing up for due process; in January 2018, a writer for flare.com accused Atwood of being a bad feminist, stating:
Many women, myself included, had a hard time reconciling Atwood the author, who contextualizes the main character’s actions in Alias Grace with the circumstances of her life—abusive father, exploitative work and being “constantly forced to negotiate her own safety with little to trade,” as Sophie Gilbert writes in The Atlantic—with this Atwood, who couldn’t seem to understand how signing an open letter supporting a man accused of predatory behaviour could hurt survivors of sexual violence and deter other young women from coming forward.
Another writer, penning in The Ubyssey in March 2018, quoted four students who claimed the letter damaged their attempts at creative writing. One stated, “It just took up so much emotional energy to deal with that that I took a step back from the creative writing work that I was doing. I just wasn’t interested in interacting in a community of people who weren’t interested in being accountable.”
The student continued that she took a class with professor Andreas Schroeder, who had signed the letter and written a statement for UBC Accountable. The student asserted, “Having to be in that class with [Schroeder] a day or two days after I had found out that he had signed that letter was a tough class. A lot of students in that class, I could see, were having a tough time. People weren’t making eye contact with him, people weren’t answering his questions. It was just this elephant in the room that wasn’t being addressed — like everyone just looked pretty visibly upset. Especially the women and queer students.”
The Ubyssey wrote, “At the advice of a professor, she arranged a meeting with acting co-chairs Annabel Lyon and Linda Svendsen to express concerns regarding her safety in a class with an instructor who signed the letter, among other issues.”
Another student said, “I will probably never go back to university. It’s been super emotionally draining. I won’t stop writing and creating and being creative, but I’m going to be doing that in communities and ways that are distinctly anti-establishment. F*** UBC and f*** institutions and f*** CanLit.”