Ken Klonsky

Outing the Law: a Website on Injustice

John Furlong Drops Suit Against Laura Robinson

In case you didn’t know, that’s the story. Furlong dropped his suit and tried to make it look as if he’s a good guy who wants bygones to be bygones. But look again. Some of the news media have slavishly parroted his statement that he is cleared of all the accusations that threatened his career and his family. What really happened is that three suits brought against him failed for lack of evidence; none of these suits had ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to do with Laura Robinson. They were accusations of sexual assault which did not hold up in court. Nevertheless, Furlong’s legal team wants everyone to think that this was what the kerfuffle with the Georgia Straight was about. That is simply not true.

In the process of writing an article for the Georgia Straight about how Furlong had covered up his past, Laura Robinson collected affidavits from First Nations people in Burns Lake who claimed that, while he was a teacher at the Sister Immaculata School, he physically and verbally abused them. Although those people cannot sue Furlong, Robinson is suing him because of the way he damaged her career as a journalist. LAURA ROBINSON, IN OTHER WORDS, HAS NOT DROPPED HER SUIT AGAINST JOHN FURLONG. If he goes to court to defend himself against her suit, he will have to face the people he is alleged to have abused. They will be Robinson’s witnesses.

This man Furlong, in my view, still has a lot to answer for. Everything he has done, including stringing out Robinson and forcing her to spend huge amounts of money in legal costs, should be scrutinized. His legal strategy has nothing to do with the truth of the Georgia Straight allegations. So if he sounds like a regular good old boy, it’s nothing more than stagecraft.

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