The Tentacles of Reputation

Alice Munro is a beloved and internationally acclaimed Canadian writer. She was marveled for writing complex stories from her small southwestern Ontario town. Over the decades she received various accolades, including the Governor General’s award, the Giller Prize, the Man Booker Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. She was called a “National Treasure” by the media when she passed away in May 2024.

Now, fewer than two months after her death, one of Munro’s daughters, Andrea Robin Skinner, startled the world when she issued an essay in a Toronto newspaper saying that as a child she had been sexually abused by her step-father, Munro’s second husband. Further, when she told her mother, years after it happened, Munro remained with the step-father, even though he pleaded guilty to indecent assault in 2005. Skinner remained estranged from Munro until her death.

For many years, writers, scholars, critics and readers of fiction will muse over whether Munro’s stories should be read through a different lens because of this information, or cast judgment on Munro personally for not supporting her daughter. But, as an investigator, I am interested why it took Skinner so long to come forward with this information.

When our firm trains HR professionals and managers on conducting workplace investigations, we talk about the reluctance of complainants, especially sexual abuse victims, to come forward with their allegations. There are many reasons to not come forward, including not wanting to relive the trauma or because their recollection is fuzzy so many years after the event. In Skinner’s situation, to me, her mother’s fame seems likely to be at least a part of the reason for her delay in making this information public. In delaying her story being made public, she protected her mother.

With the death of her mother, Skinner approached the issue herself, writing, “I … wanted this story – my story to become part of the stories people tell about my mother. I never wanted to see another interview, biography or event that didn’t wrestle with the reality of what had happened to me and with the fact that my mother, confronted with the truth of what happened, chose to stay with and protect my abuser.”[1]

It will be difficult to read another Munro story without this information in the background.

Key Take Away

In investigations, when someone raises allegations of harassment or discrimination after a lengthy period of time, be careful to not assume that they aren’t credible. Perhaps there is a compelling reason why they waited to raise their allegations and as investigator, it’s your job to find out why.

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[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/alice-munro-daughter-sexual-abuse-1.7256829