CANADA
The Tyee
By BOB MACKIN
Published March 17, 2014
The lawyer for John Furlong told a B.C. Supreme Court judge March 11 that his priority is to pursue a trial against one of the women alleging physical and sexual abuse, rather than the reporter who wrote an expose about the former Vancouver Olympics CEO.
This was in response to challenges made by an opposing lawyer that Furlong seemed not in any hurry to have his defamation suit against Laura Robinson tried in court.
Furlong sued the Georgia Straight and reporter Robinson for defamation in November 2012, two months after the newspaper published a story under the headline “John Furlong biography omits secret past in Burns Lake.” The article contained allegations that Furlong physically and verbally abused First Nations students when he was a physical education instructor at Immaculata Elementary School in Burns Lake, B.C. Furlong has denied the allegations.
Last October, Furlong dropped his claim against the Georgia Straight but has still not scheduled a trial against Robinson. She sued him for defamation in January and scheduled a trial to begin March 30, 2015.
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