Former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong says the reporter behind an article that accused him of abusing students 40 years ago while teaching in northern B.C. wrote the story as part of a malicious campaign to discredit him.
Furlong, whose role at the top of the 2010 Olympic organizing committee saw him inducted as a member of the Order of Canada, filed a statement of claim this week alleging his reputation has been irreparably harmed by the Georgia Straight newspaper, reporter Laura Robinson, publisher Daniel McLeod and editor Charlie Smith.
The weekly newspaper published a story Sept. 27 that quoted eight former students who alleged Furlong was physically and verbally abusive while he was a volunteer teacher in northern B.C. in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
None of it is true, Furlong's lawyers write in their statement of claim, as they describe how repeated warnings that the accusations were false and publishing them would trigger a lawsuit failed to convince Robinson and the Straight to back down.
The Georgia Straight was also aware that someone had attempted to blackmail Furlong over the same accusations in 2009, demanding $5,000 to make the story "go away," the statement says, but the paper published the story anyway.
"The Georgia Straight article is false and defamatory," says the 22-page statement of claim, filed in B.C. Supreme Court.
"During his time as a teacher, the plaintiff [Furlong] never engaged in abuse of his students, nor did the plaintiff engage in bullying or racial taunting. ...
Robinson maliciously intended to injure the plaintiff's reputation and cause the plaintiff harm."
Robinson said in an email she couldn't comment on the lawsuit because she hadn't yet consulted with a lawyer, while McLeod and Smith did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
The statement of claim, which contains unproven allegations, paints Robinson as someone with a grudge against both Furlong and the Olympics, spending several years writing articles in various publications that were "sharply critical" of the Games.
Most of the allegations involve Furlong's time as a volunteer teacher at Immaculata Catholic School in Burns Lake.
