CANADA
Georgia Straight
by Carlito Pablo on June 25th, 2015
On the eve of final arguments in the civil trial of former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong, the plaintiff’s lawyer summed up what the case is all about.
“The main argument is that she was defamed,” Bryan Baynham told the Georgia Straight, referring to his client, Laura Robinson.
Robinson is the journalist who first reported on Furlong’s previously undisclosed history as a Christian missionary in northern B.C., and the alleged abuses he committed against First Nations children he taught at a school in Burns Lake.
Giving a preview of some of the facts he will be citing on Friday (June 26) in his closing argument in B.C. Supreme Court, Baynham said that Furlong claimed Robinson went to the RCMP to file a complaint of sexual abuse against him on behalf of a First Nations woman, “and she didn’t”.
The lawyer also recalled that Furlong “said she tried to extort money and she didn’t”.
“You can’t say that about anybody,” Baynham said in an interview outside the courtroom today (June 25). “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a reporter or a person walking down the street or the prime minister.”
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