CANADA
Play the Game
After more than two years of legal battle between Laura Robinson, a freelance investigative journalist, and former VANOC CEO John Furlong, a trial date has now been set for Robinson’s case against Furlong.
In September 2012, Canadian newspaper The Georgia Straight published an article featuring the former CEO of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games organising committee, John Furlong.
The article was written by Laura Robinson, a Canadian investigative journalist, who presented allegations that Furlong had abused First Nations children while working as a physical educations teacher at a Catholic School in the late 1960s.
John Furlong has denied all allegations raised, and in November 2012, he filed a defamation suit against both Robinson and The Georgia Straight. He later dropped the charge against the newspaper and instead pledged to intensify his battle against “the source of these lies”, as he wrote in a press release.
In January 2014, Robinson filed a defamation suit against John Furlong and his PR-company TwentyTen Group. Since Robinson is a freelance journalist, she was not covered by the Georgia Straight’s insurance policy and in order to inform about the case and to seek financial assistance to cover the great amount of legal expenses, she has set up a website and a defense fund.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.