Choked up ex-Olympic boss denies allegations
COURT: John Furlong on trial facing defamation lawsuit
His voice at times choking with emotion, John Furlong denied under oath Monday ever physically or sexually abusing any of the students he taught more than 40 years ago in northern B.C.
The former Vancouver Olympic CEO denied the allegations during a trial at which freelance journalist Laura Robinson is suing him for defamation.
Furlong himself sued Robinson for defamation after she published allegations in the Georgia Straight newspaper in September 2012 alleging he’d physically abused students in Burns Lake. Her story did not mention sexual-abuse allegations, but another story of hers published in a First Nations newspaper in Ontario did mention the sex allegations.
Robinson filed a countersuit over comments that Furlong made in the wake of publication, but after three lawsuits alleging Furlong had sexually abused students were dismissed, Furlong dropped his defamation suit. An RCMP investigation resulted in no criminal charges being laid.
On the day that the Straight article was published, Furlong described it as “one of the worst” mornings of his life as he learned of the allegations in the story.
He told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge that before a news conference he gave to deny the allegations, he knew that Robinson had been suggesting he was guilty of sexual abuse.
Under questioning from his lawyer, John Hunter, Furlong said that when he arrived at the news conference, someone said that a report of sexual assault was on the Internet.
“You say the sexual-abuse allegations are not true, what about the physical abuse allegations?,” Hunter asked.
“It’s absolutely not true, not ever,” Furlong replied.
In his opening statement, Hunter accused Robinson of engaging in a “smear” campaign against his client under the guise of conducting an investigation into his past for a story.
“Mr. Furlong was aware of the smear campaign being conducted by Ms. Robinson,” said Hunter, who noted that the journalist had contacted a number of associates of Furlong and others, including Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, making the allegations widely known.
For her story in the Straight, Robinson gathered eight affidavits from students alleging that he’d beaten them while he was a Frontier Apostle missionary at the Catholic Immaculata day school in Burns Lake.
But in court Monday, Furlong said it was an “absolutely fantastic” year for him at the Immaculata school.
“It was a very happy place. I enjoyed every minute. I thought for the rest of my life, this would be a warm memory.”
Furlong accused Robinson of a “shocking lack of diligence” in her reporting of what he called untrue allegations and said the impact on his life has been “unbearable.”
He repeated his allegation that Robinson was on a personal vendetta against him and denied a suggestion by her that he had suggested she had tried to extort him to make the story go away.
Furlong testified that the allegations had had a “very damaging” impact on himself and his family. kfraser@theprovince.com
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