One year later: Furlong case fraught with accusations and denials

One year ago, on Sept. 27, 2012, the world of John Furlong was turned upside down and Vancouverites who followed his rise were shocked. 

The Georgia Straight published an expose by Ontario journalist Laura Robinson that revealed Irish-born Furlong lived in Canada before his oft-stated 1974 arrival in Edmonton. He had been a Catholic missionary volunteering as a physical education teacher of aboriginal children at the Immaculata Catholic elementary school in Burns Lake in 1969 and 1970, before moving to Prince George. Some of those ex-students claimed that he abused them and ruined their childhood. 

As CEO of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee, Furlong was the head organizer of the biggest, most-expensive and complex Winter Olympics in history. Furlong was the British Columbian who formally welcomed the world at the opening ceremony on Feb. 12, 2010 and he thanked the world for coming on Feb. 28, 2010 at the closing ceremony. The International Olympic Committee estimated 1.8 billion people watched during the 17 days of Vancouver 2010. Furlong was showered with acclaim before, during and after: honorary university degrees, corporate board appointments and even his name was emblazoned on a SkyTrain car. 

Never before -- and, perhaps, never again -- will British Columbia be so united as it was during February 2010 and Furlong was at the centre of it all. He also became a lightning rod for criticism, whether it was VANOC’s secrecy, its adverse impact on some communities and the environment, the cost of it all, VANOC's finances amid the Great Recession and the preventable death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. 

Within hours of the Georgia Straight story hitting the streets and the web, Furlong appeared at a news conference in The Landing in Gastown. A building of significance, for that is where the Bid Corporation and Organizing Committee were once located and it is now home of the Furlong-chaired Vancouver Whitecaps and the TwentyTen Group, the marketing company that represents him. He took no questions, but adamantly proclaimed his innocence. The message he wanted to deliver was plain and simple: the acts that he was accused of committing "just didn't happen."

He did, however, admit to being in Northern British Columbia from 1969 to 1972, facts that were omitted from the book because he felt that period of his life was “fairly brief and fairly uneventful.” A look inside the Prince George newspaper archives, however, says otherwise. A front page story in 1972 said he fled Canada because of repeated attacks and threats while volunteering as a soccer referee.

Furlong sued for defamation on Nov. 27. Less than two months later, the Georgia Straight and Laura Robinson responded with defence statements. They emphatically stand behind their work and plead the truth. They also filed expanded allegations; Robinson’s filing included allegations of sexual assault of a former common law spouse. TwentyTen Group issued Furlong's denial, then silence from the Furlong camp through February and March. He had gone to Ireland with his third wife, Deborah Sharp.

Then tragedy struck. Sharp died in Dublin April 11 after a head-on car crash near their home in rural Gorey, County Wexford. Police in Ireland continue to investigate.

He re-emerged in July as an advisor to a penny-stock gold mining company with ambitions for a motherlode in Albania. Then more trouble. Two women who claimed in July 24 B.C. Supreme Court lawsuits that Furlong verbally, physically and sexually abused them in 1969 and 1970 when they were his students. That action preceded Furlong’s long-awaited rebuttal to the Georgia Straight and Robinson. Furlong repeated his denial and an allegation that Robinson carries a personal vendetta against him. Robinson, who is raising funds for a mounting legal bill, denies that charge. The rebuttal even said Furlong's lawyer had been advised by the RCMP that there would be no criminal charges because the police found no evidence of abuse. (An RCMP spokesman publicly said the investigation was ongoing.)

Jason Gratl, the lawyer for the two new complainants, wrote an open letter to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, claiming the RCMP had not done its job and were showing pro-Furlong bias. Gratl pointed out that the Mounties had a $900 million budget to secure the Olympics and senior officials worked closely with Furlong. Gratl is waiting for action from the RCMP complaints watchdog.

The same day Furlong responded in court with denials to Gratl’s clients in September, a third lawsuit was filed by a male ex-student alleging Furlong had sexually assaulted him.

Yet again, you heard or read the important phrase: none of the allegations has been proven in court.  

Furlong's public speaking engagements, for which he has charged $20,000 an appearance, evaporated. He did, however, retain support from Own the Podium, Whitecaps FC, Rocky Mountaineer, Whistler Blackcomb and Canadian Tire to remain on their boards. While ex-Premier Gordon Campbell stayed silent, VANOC chairman Rusty Goepel didn't. On the third anniversary of the Games, Goepel wrote a Vancouver Sun commentary in support of Furlong. 

A year has passed since the Georgia Straight story. So what next? When will the time come for the to-and-fro of accusations and denials to end? When will evidence be tested and the truth determined? When will a trial happen?  

The B.C. Supreme Court registry and lawyer for the Georgia Straight, Roger McConchie confirm there are no hearings scheduled. (Furlong’s lawyer, John Hunter, and his agent, Andrea Shaw of TwentyTen Group, have not responded for comment.)

Said McConchie: “There's been no discovery of any sort, documentary or examination. No examinations for discovery have been scheduled. We haven't had any communication from them on a trial date. 

“It's not proceeding on a vigorous pace.”

Furlong saga worsens

This time last year, I was in London to cover the 2012 Olympics.

One prominent Canadian was notably absent. John Furlong, the chief executive of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee. Furlong would have been wined and dined by at least two prominent people in London. He would have certainly enjoyed watching an Olympics as a fan instead of organizer.

Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London 2012 organizing committee, told me in an interview in Vancouver, after the 2010 Games, that he was speaking multiple times a week with Furlong. Coe constantly sought Furlong's advice on how to organize an Olympics.

Furlong served as VANOC CEO at the pleasure of Gordon Campbell, who was British Columbia's premier from 2001 to 2010. Campbell became Canada's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Canada's diplomatic mission at Trafalgar Square in Central London became Canada Olympic House, a home-away-from-home for Canadian athletes and their families. Campbell hosted many an event there.

Furlong chairs the Own the Podium high-performance sport, fundraising ally of the Canadian Olympic Committee. CEO Anne Merklinger showed up in London, but Furlong didn't.

Before the end of September, we learned that a complaint had been filed with the RCMP before the Olympics. A complainant alleged Furlong committed sexual and physical assault against children while   he was a teenaged missionary at a Catholic elementary school in Burns Lake, B.C. 

On Sept. 27, 2012, the Georgia Straight published journalist Laura Robinson's expose, "John Furlong biography omits secret past in Burns Lake."

Furlong rapidly and vehemently denied all the accusations at a news conference. Furlong's "Patriot Hearts" memoir only mentioned arriving in Canada in fall 1974 at Edmonton. It turned out, he was in Burns Lake and later Prince George from 1969 to 1972. At that news conference, he downplayed his early years in northern B.C. as "brief" and "uneventful," but didn't explain why they were omitted from his book.

Two months later, he filed a defamation lawsuit against the Georgia Straight and the author of the expose, Laura Robinson. Robinson and the newspaper filed defence statements containing further damaging allegations. Furlong's public relations agent, not his lawyer, told media on Jan. 22, 2013 that he would be responding with additional court filings in a matter of days and he would eventually be vindicated.

Six months later, Furlong has not filed a rebuttal to the Georgia Straight and Robinson. If he was planning a defence, it most likely was tragically disrupted on April 11 when his third wife, Deborah Sharp, died in a head-on crash on a rural road in Gorey, Ireland, near their house. She was 48. Irish police continue to investigate.

One-hundred and four days after Sharp's death come new allegations in B.C. Supreme Court.

Lawyer Jason Gratl, on behalf of former Furlong students Beverly Abraham and Grace West, sued Furlong, Vancouver's Catholic Archdiocese, Prince George's Catholic Diocese and the Catholic Independent Schools Diocese of Prince George on July 24, 2013. They allege Furlong committed  physical and sexual abuse against them. They are also accusing him of defamation.

Abraham and West's statements of claim are below. Furlong's lawyers John Hunter and Claire Hunter have not responded for comment.

None of the allegations against Furlong has been proven in court.

Notice of Civil Claim (West)

Notice of Civil Claim (Abraham vs. Furlong, et al)

Furlong fights back -- will Straight stay steadfast?

John Furlong claims Ontario journalist Laura Robinson defamed him as recently as the last weekend of November.

Exactly two months after the Georgia Straight published Robinson’s expose on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics CEO, Furlong followed through Nov. 27 on a threatened defamation lawsuit seeking unspecified monetary damages, an apology and retraction, and an order that the weekly newspaper remove the story from the Internet. 

The 11-page civil claim denied the abuse claims made in the story, which was headlined “John Furlong Biography Omits Secret Past in Burns Lake,” and was filed in B.C. Supreme Court by lawyers John Hunter and Claire Hunter of Hunter Litigation Chambers. Attached to the claim is the story itself. See the full filing below.

The named defendants are Robinson, publisher Dan McLeod, editor Charlie Smith and Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corporation, the parent company of the Georgia Straight. No other media outlet is named in the lawsuit. CBC TV reported about the allegations also on Sept. 27 and included an interview with a woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by Furlong. Neither Robinson nor Smith would comment on the lawsuit, but both have defended the story. In October, Robinson even threatened to countersue Furlong, after he released a statement his website that she claimed defamed her.

Robinson interviewed eight people who swore statements claiming Furlong abused them while he was their physical education teacher at Immaculata Elementary School in Burns Lake, where he arrived as an 18-year-old fresh out of high school in Ireland. Furlong’s post-Olympic memoir, Patriot Hearts, made no mention of being in Canada prior to 1974 when he arrived at Edmonton International Airport to take up permanent residence, nor did his book mention he originally came to Canada as a member of the Catholic Frontier Apostolate lay missionary group.

"During his time as a teacher, the plaintiff (Furlong) never engaged in abuse of his students, nor did the plaintiff engage in bullying or racial taunting, as alleged or at all,” said Furlong’s court filing.

Furlong claims that his personal history in Patriot Hearts -- including the circumstances of the death of his cousin Siobhan Roice, his father's death, the birth of his son and his immigration to Canada -- are true. 

"The allegation in the Georgia Straight article that the plaintiff was not honestly recounting his personal history in Patriot Hearts is false and defamatory and was included in the article solely to further the objective of the defendant Robinson to discredit the plaintiff in the estimation of the public,” said the court filing.

Robinson is working on a follow-up story after more alleged victims have come forward in response to the first story. Furlong claims Robinson further defamed him in a Nov. 8 email to Chris Dornan of Own the Podium, of which Furlong is the chairman. It said Robinson wrote, in part, that: "There is a great deal of confirmation that Mr. Furlong was violent and a racist."

In a Nov. 25 email, Robinson is alleged to have written: "Former students of John Furlong's have made very serious allegations recently in signed documents about his violence against women and children." The civil claim said Furlong has suffered “grave damage to his character and reputation,” that his family have “suffered distress and embarrassment,” and that unspecified, paid speaking engagements have been cancelled. 

Furlong appeared as scheduled in Grande Prairie, Alta., at the Alberta Sport Development Centre awards on Oct. 13 and at the Abbotsford B.C. economic symposium on Nov. 20. An Oct. 16 Vancouver Board of Trade luncheon, billed as “Behind the Bench: An Insider’s Look at Whitecaps FC,” was quietly cancelled on Oct. 2. Board of Trade spokesman Greg Hoekstra told me for a Business in Vancouver story in October that “John Furlong and the Whitecaps initiated the postponement.”

Furlong, however, remains executive chairman of the Vancouver Whitecaps, chairman of Own the Podium and Rocky Mountaineer railtours and a director of Whistler Blackcomb and Canadian Tire.

The lawsuit mentions Robinson’s previously published work was critical of Furlong and VANOC, including the Olympic organizing committee’s relations with aboriginals, female ski jumpers who weren’t allowed to compete at the 2010 Games and athlete safety. Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died from a crash at the Whistler Sliding Centre on the Games’ opening day. CBC’s Fifth Estate obtained a March 2009 internal VANOC email by Furlong to senior executives at VANOC about track safety concerns. Athletes were reaching speeds that were faster than what the track had been designed for.

The filing said Furlong knew the story was going to be published on Sept. 25 and his lawyer, Marvin Storrow, wrote to Smith, admitting they had met with the RCMP. “In the event that anything defamatory is published by anyone concerning Mr. Furlong that a civil defamation action will be 

commenced forthwith thereafter."

The filing also said Robinson filed a report with the RCMP and that in August, the RCMP advised Smith that "there were inconsistencies between the accounts of the defendant Robinson and the former student named" by Robinson. On Sept. 27, when the story was published, the RCMP admitted that an investigation was ongoing. 

When Robinson and the Georgia Straight file their defence statement, you’ll see it here. 

Furlong v Georgia Straight