SFU Fired Its Swim Coach, Then Reversed the Decision

On May 23, 1997, Simon Fraser University fired its 29-year-old swim coach, Liam Donnelly, after an internal panel upheld sexual harassment complaints against him. Within two months, the university reversed the dismissal, restored his back pay and agreed to remove the case from his file. Between those decisions lay a public challenge to how the university had heard the complaints—and what it had refused to hear.

Rachel Marsden, a 22-year-old student, had complained of unwanted sexual attention, intimidating behaviour and psychological sexual harassment. According to a contemporary account in the Canadian Association of University Teachers’ Bulletin, her complaint arrived six days after Donnelly gave notice that he intended to bring his own harassment charge against her. Those competing accounts became the substance of a dispute conducted first behind closed doors, then in public.

The university’s three-member volunteer panel heard Marsden’s complaints without Donnelly or his lawyer present. His lawyer had advised him not to appear as a way of challenging the validity of SFU’s procedures. The panel upheld the complaints and recommended dismissal. When the university later released its 21-page report, it left only nine paragraphs unredacted, citing British Columbia’s freedom-of-information and privacy law.

Donnelly subsequently said he had received bad legal advice. He submitted a 28-page letter to university president John Stubbs with material that included testimony from 14 witnesses. Donnelly said the material, including explicit photographs and emails, showed that Marsden had harassed him rather than the reverse. The Bulletin reported that Stubbs refused to hear the material and fired Donnelly. The university also agreed to pay Marsden $12,000.

As the case became a media controversy, Donnelly and his supporters argued that Stubbs should have considered the new material. The panel’s chair, computer science professor Lou Hafer, defended its work in an early July interview with the Vancouver Sun, saying it had reached a sound decision on the evidence before it. Stubbs said he lacked the power to overturn the panel’s decision; Hafer and other faculty disputed that claim.

The argument also reached the university senate. Eight professors sought to have the disciplinary portions of the harassment policy suspended. Students argued that suspension would send a negative message about the university’s view of students, while several professors said the existing policy was better than none. The motion failed, 25–5. A separate call for senate review of the proposed new policy passed unanimously.

SFU ultimately agreed to mediation, with arbitration to follow if necessary. Stephen Kelleher conducted the mediation; Marsden declined to participate. The parties agreed to confidentiality. The Bulletin cautiously reported that Kelleher apparently found serious procedural faults and important inconsistencies in Marsden’s testimony. During the process, acting president David Gagan publicly questioned the fairness of the original proceedings. The result was a mediated settlement, not a court judgment on the competing allegations. SFU and Donnelly also agreed that the settlement should not be described as criticism of the panel members.

By July, Donnelly had his job back. The university acknowledged flaws in its procedures, restored his back pay, agreed to pay legal bills up to $35,000 and undertook to expunge the case from his file. “The university regrets what Mr. Donnelly and others have gone through,” Gagan said. “If we were convinced Mr. Donnelly was guilty of sexual harassment, we would not have reinstated him.”