John Furlong categorically denies abuse allegations

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Allegations of physical and mental abuse are emerging against the former boss of VANOC. John Furlong is being accused of crimes dating back to 1969.

Furlong says he’s in a “state of disbelief” and categorically denies allegations of physical and mental abuse dating back over 40 years.

The RCMP confirms it is aware of the allegations involving Furlong and say Mounties are investigating but will not provide further comment.

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Furlong said he stands by what he has accomplished. “I am proud of the work I have done and the time I spent in the north and across the country working with First Nations and Aboriginal communities.  I have the honour of having two Aboriginal names given to me by Aboriginal groups for accomplishments we achieved together.

The Georgia Straight reports Furlong worked as a Frontier Apostle missionary at an elementary school in Burns Lake where he taught PE. The article outlines allegations of physical abuse made by several of Furlong’s former students. Eight of them signed affidavits.

News1130 spoke with Beverley Abraham, who was one of the former students; she claims Furlong abused her physically.

“He would make us do push-ups,” she claims. “If we weren’t doing [the full] push-ups, he would just slam his big feet on our backs and we’d fall right to the ground. At that time, we were just becoming women.”

Abraham says when she told people what was happening over 40 years ago, they just said “he’s a man of God.”

She tells us she went to the RCMP two months ago and claims they simply brushed her off.

Furlong says the Straight made no attempt to contact him regarding the allegations. His lawyer says they will pursue legal action against the paper.

Plus, he suggests there was an attempt at extortion. “And finally let me just say on the very first occasion that this was brought to my attention prior to the Olympics I was advised for that, for a payment, it could be made to go away. And as such I reported this to the police,” he says in his statement.

In a statement, the newspaper says all attempts to reach Furlong when the journalist was researching the story were unsuccessful.

You can read Furlong’s full statement here.

Journalist stands by her story

John Furlong says he’s shocked by the “lack of due diligence in researching the article” and the allegations.

But the freelance journalist behind the story insists everything was done to validate the details.

“I finished the story before the London Olympics, but the Georgia Straight wanted to make sure we could verify everything in the story. We did that by getting yearbooks, etc,” says Laura Robinson.

Furlong says it’s beyond belief that the Georgia Straight did not endeavour to contact him about his side of the story.

But Robinson says she sent Furlong several emails through his publisher and his lawyer.

She says the last time she approached him in person, at a luncheon in Vancouver last year, the encounter was not pleasant.

“I said ‘You know I’ve sent a number of emails to your publisher about your time…’  And I couldn’t even get the phrase ‘Frontier Apostle’ out before he screamed at me and told me to stop it. He turned and walked away from me.”

In his statement, Furlong says he had “experienced the reporter on many occasions in the past,” but Robinson says she’d only been in the same room as Furlong a total of three times.

She says news of a lawsuit against her is not entirely a surprise, since emails from Furlong’s lawyer indicated there would be one, if she went ahead with the story.

Newspaper would have thoroughly checked the story details: expert

Media expert George Orr says while the article claims to be telling the truth, it’s quite another to prove the truth in court.

“You have to be able to definitively prove the truth in Canadian law. If you can’t definitively prove the truth, even if it’s true, you’re in trouble. I’m presuming a paper like that would have checked and double-checked its sources.”

He says the newspaper would have needed to give Furlong sufficient opportunity to respond to the allegations, something Furlong says was not done.

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