CANADA
CTV
Geordon Omand, The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, June 24, 2015
VANCOUVER — A freelance journalist suing former Vancouver Olympics’ CEO John Furlong for defamation penned a hand-written letter claiming he had abused more than 40 First Nations’ students at a northern British Columbia school, the trial has heard.
Former 2010 Games spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade told B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday she was “stunned” when Laura Robinson handed her a lengthy note during a chance encounter at a Toronto airport in April 2013. The note alleged Furlong’s actions had resulted in at least one suicide.
“She invites me to be an off-the-record interview for her,” said Smith-Valade, reading from the message. “She said, ‘I’m hoping you will consider this option to go off the record as a way of being a member of the human race.”‘
Smith-Valade said she immediately handed the letter over to Furlong’s lawyers after landing in Vancouver.
Robinson is suing Furlong for defamation based on public comments he made after she published a newspaper article in 2012.
The article included affidavits from eight former First Nations’ students and alleged Furlong physically and verbally abused the children while working as a gym teacher at a Roman Catholic school in Burns Lake, B.C., about 45 years ago.
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