CANADA
Vancouver Sun
BY MATTHEW ROBINSON AND BEV WAKE, VANCOUVER SUN, THE CANADIAN PRESS OCTOBER 29, 2013
John Furlong went on a media offensive Monday to proclaim his innocence as a police investigation into claims of abuse against his former students continues.
In television interviews, the organizer of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics shared a letter he said RCMP sent him in the spring stating they were unable to substantiate one of the complainants’ claims of sexual abuse. But RCMP Sgt. Rob Vermeulen would not confirm police were finished with that claim – levelled by Beverly Abraham – and said the overall investigation remains open.
“Due to the serious and sensitive nature of the allegations, earlier this year we asked for an independent review of our complete investigation by major crime investigators from another province,” said Sgt. Vermeulen in an email. “That review resulted in a number of investigative recommendations that we continue to follow up on.”
The allegations against Furlong surfaced following an article, published last fall in the Georgia Straight, suggesting he physically and verbally abused First Nations students at Burns Lake while teaching at a Catholic school there in the late 1960s.
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