Journalist’s lawsuit against Games CEO reaches B.C. court
VANCOUVER — Freelance journalist Laura Robinson investigates claims of discrimination, abuse and racism in sport, and writes stories which “the establishment does not want to hear, but need to be told,” says her lawyer, prominent Vancouver litigator Bryan Baynham.
Robinson took on an establishment sports figure three years ago, in print. She published a shocking article about John Furlong, best known for his role as president and chief executive of Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic Winter Games organizing committee. The story directed allegations of physical and verbal abuse at Furlong, made by people identified as former students at a Catholic elementary school, in remote Burns Lake, B.C.
Reacting to her article, Furlong went too far and defamed her, Robinson claims. She’s now suing him in B.C. Supreme Court.
The defamation trial began Monday. It’s a curious case, especially since Furlong was first to file suit three years ago, alleging that Robinson defamed him.
The events Robinson wrote about allegedly took place during the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Furlong was a young Irish “missionary” new to Canada and teaching physical education to First Nations children.
Furlong denies every claim of abuse made about him. He began legal proceedings against the author and her article’s Vancouver-based publisher, the Georgia Straight newspaper, in late 2012. A year later, he dropped the Georgia Straight as a defendant. Earlier this year, he withdrew the lawsuit.
By then, he’d already made harsh comments about Robinson and her article in court documents, in public statements and at a news conference. Furlong labelled Robinson “an activist” with a “personal vendetta” against him. He claimed Robinson “has a two decade-long pattern of inaccuracy in her writing. ... Her words have hurt innocent people. ... She is now sending defamatory letters and documents to my friends, employers and other organizations that I work with, slurring my reputation. This is palpable harassment.”
In his opening statement in court Monday, Baynham claimed that Furlong further defamed his client by suggesting she is a liar who had tried to extort money from him; that she had filed a criminal complaint against him; that she was “predisposed to attack male authority figures.”
These all are incorrect and do not make fair comment, one line of defence in defamation cases, Baynham told the court.
Robinson has suffered emotionally, physically and financially, Baynham added. She spent more than $150,000 to defend herself from the lawsuit Furlong filed against her and then dropped, and she now “finds it hard to find media that will publish her work.”
Her speaking engagements “have dried up,” Baynham said. She has made “several trips to the (hospital) emergency ward due to the stress she is under,” he said.
“If (Furlong) seriously thought he had been defamed by Ms. Robinson, why did he drop his lawsuit against her?” Baynham asked. “I’ll be interested to hear his answer. ... He abandoned with impunity ruinous allegations against Ms. Robinson.”
Whatever his reasons for cancelling his lawsuit, Furlong has also experienced distress. Immediately after the Georgia Straight published its story about him, individuals began coming forward, claiming that Furlong had sexually abused them as children, during the late 1960s, at the Burns Lake Catholic school.
Three people eventually filed sexual abuse lawsuits directed at Furlong and the local Catholic diocese; all three cases have since been dismissed or have dissolved. In at least one case, the allegations seem to have been fabricated from whole cloth.
Furlong has never been charged with any crime.