Reaction in Burns Lake to allegations against John Furlong

People in Burns Lake are still trying to deal with the death of two workers and the injuries to 19 others when the town’s mill exploded earlier this year – a mill owned in part by the Lake Babine Nation.

On Friday, its Chief is calling for a full investigation into the allegations against John Furlong.

“As a nation we’re going to monitor it very carefully,” said Wilf Adam, Lake Babine Nation Chief. “That’s why we asked the RCMP to do a thorough investigation of this whole matter, so that, you know, we can put it to rest.”

These allegations go so far back that the Immaculata School doesn’t even exist as it did when Furlong worked here.

Only the gymnasium remains as part of a church.

The building was converted to this about a decade ago.

And there’s the obvious question – why did it take almost 40 years for these allegations to come out – why now?

“One of the impetus was that his book came out and he didn’t even mention Burns Lake,” said Adam. “You know he was here, in Burns Lake, and no mention of Burns Lake in his book whatsoever.”

Yesterday Furlong tried to answer that question in his prepared statement.

“So why no mention of Burns Lake in my book?” said Furlong. “My time in Burns Lake was fairly brief and fairly uneventful.”
Adam responded.

“The reason why he didn’t mention Burns Lake was it was a short time, and it was, what did he say, insignificant, and if you abuse people, you know, that’s significant,” said Adam.

In talking to people in Burns Lake, almost everyone over about 50 years of age clearly remembered Furlong. One native man told Global News he thought Furlong was a good Phys-Ed teacher. But others told a different story – none of which we can report as the allegations are expected to be the subject of legal action announced yesterday by Furlong.