Court date set for Laura Robinson’s suit of John 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.

According to the website, Robinson and her lawyers attended her case’s Discovery of John Furlong in the beginning of December 2014. A trial date for her case against Furlong has been set for 15 June 2015.

A trial date for Furlong’s case against the journalist has not yet been set and neither has a date for Discovery.