CANADA
CBC News
By Jason Proctor, CBC News
An expert on human memory says journalist Laura Robinson conducted a flawed investigation after she travelled to Burns Lake, B.C., to interview potential abuse victims about John Furlong.
UBC professor John Yuille questioned a flyer Laura Robinson posted in the community while researching a damning 2012 Georgia Straight article on the former Olympics CEO’s time as a teacher at a Catholic school in 1969.
The poster said she was a “journalist investigating abuse” and was interested in students who “had John Furlong as a phys-ed teacher.”
“I’m not a journalist. I don’t set journalist standards,” Yuille said.
“This is bad investigation — that I know.”
Keeping an open mind
Yuille was the final witness Thursday in an unprecedented B.C. Supreme Court trial.
While Furlong was the subject of an article containing allegations he verbally and physically abused children at Immaculata Catholic school, the reporter is suing him for defamation.
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