Furlong Denies Additional Abuse Claims Raised in Suit

The Province
July 28, 2013

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Furlong+denies+additional+abuse+claims+raised+suit/8717913/story.html

John Furlong

Former Vancouver Olympic CEO John Furlong has denied more allegations of abuse levelled by a freelance reporter, saying in court documents Laura Robinson is a journalist who uses "unorthodox and unreliable" investigation techniques to get her stories.

Furlong launched a lawsuit after Robinson wrote a story published in the Georgia Straight last fall that accused him of harming aboriginal students when he taught at a Catholic school in Burns Lake.

In new court documents filed Friday, Furlong said additional accusations in Robinson's statement of defence that allege Furlong abused his former wife, an unnamed former common-law spouse, and students, are defamatory and unfounded.

"The events alleged are said to have occurred in 1969 and the 1970s, but have not been reported in the intervening decades to the plaintiff or to the authorities by any persons involved," the court document said. "This is because they never occurred."

Furlong alleged in his original lawsuit that Robinson was waging a personal vendetta against him. In reply in a statement of defence, Robinson stood by the article she wrote last fall and denied it was defamatory.

Both Robinson and the Georgia Straight newspaper have also claimed in court documents the article is shielded from the lawsuit under the fair comment and responsible communication principle because they believed they made every effort to ensure the allegations were true.

None of the allegations outlined in any of the legal documents has been tested in court.

Robinson's statement of defence also added allegations of abuse that were not included in the article, Furlong noted in his documents filed Friday.

Robinson said that after her story was published, she was contacted by a former common-law spouse of Furlong's. The woman, who was not named, alleged Furlong sexually assaulted her when the two were living in Nanaimo from 1979 to 1982, the court documents say.

Robinson's statement also claimed Furlong physically and emotionally abused his former wife, Margaret Furlong, when they were living in Prince George between 1970 and 1972. Both Margaret and John Furlong have said that is untrue. In the latest court documents, Furlong accused Robinson of using "back-door publishing" to get out the allegations that were not part of the Georgia Straight article.

"The defendant knew her allegations were not fit for publication under normal journalistic criteria," the document stated.

Last week, two women filed lawsuits against Furlong alleging he sexually molested them while he was a teacher at the Burns Lake school in 1969 and 1970.

Furlong has yet to file a statement of defence in the latest lawsuits, and none of those allegations has been proven in court.

Robinson could not be reached for comment.