The lawyer of Laura Robinson, the journalist who wrote an article alleging former VANOC boss John Furlong verbally and physically abused students while he was a teacher in Burns Lake, is demanding an apology.
Robinson’s lawyer has sent a letter to Furlong’s legal counsel, demanding the former Vancouver Olympics’ CEO apologize for and retract statements made about his client during recent media interviews, including one with Global BC.
In an exclusive TV interview to Global BC tonight, Robinson said she is asking for an apology and retraction to restore her reputation as a journalist.
“I worked very hard on this article. There was all kinds of due diligence. I was pretty much the only journalist who did not write about sexual abuse allegations, so it is interesting to me that he keeps connecting me to allegations of sexual abuse made by now a number of students… And yet, that was not part of my article. I really feel that he is very much misrepresenting my article and me.”
Robinson says it was an editorial decision not to include the allegations of sexual abuse in her article.
“After the story came out, a number of other people came forward and that is when more sexual abuse allegations came out. But I certainly did not contact the RCMP about Ms. Abraham’s allegation, even though I did know about it. ”
Robinson says she had nothing to do with the civil lawsuit.
John Furlong has released a statement to Global News, saying, “no apology is merited nor will be made” to Laura Robinson.
Robinson says she is ready to face Furlong in court.
“He could have set a trial date virtually a year ago. And we have yet to receive a trial date from him. We have over a thousand documents. We have many people who are very good witnesses, and we are ready. What we are waiting for is for Mr. Furlong to actually allow this to go to court.”
None of the allegations against Robinson or Furlong have been proven in court.
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