John Furlong Tells Court That It Was 'Well Known' He Taught In Burns Lake.

From the GStraight's Carlito Pablo reporting on today's developments in the Laura Robinson v. John Furlong civil trial:

...Addressing Furlong, (Robinson's lawyer Bryan) Baynham said that nobody among Olympics officials knew about Furlong’s past as a missionary.

“You’re dead wrong,” Furlong countered, saying “lots of people at Vanoc” knew that he was once in Burns Lake, B.C., where he taught physical education to school children as part of his missionary work.

Furlong maintained: “It was well known.”...


Interestingly,  Mr. Gary Mason, he of the The Globe, who also ghost-wrote Mr. Furlong's 2011 autobiography/memoir,  apparently did not know this well known thing.

Or, at the very least, Mr. Furlong did not tell Mr. Mason of this well known thing according to a 2012 Tyee piece written by Bob Mackin. Here is Mr. Mackin's lede:

A story by Ontario journalist Laura Robinson published by the Georgia Straight on Sept. 27 (2012)alleges that several of Vancouver 2010 Olympic CEO John Furlong's ex-students have filed affidavits claiming he abused them while he taught at Prince George Catholic school in the 1970s.

The story also claims significant inconsistencies in Furlong's post-Olympic memoir, Patriot Hearts: Inside the Olympics that Changed a Country.

The February 2011 book was co-written with Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason.

Furlong has not immediately responded to an interview request, but Mason told The Tyee via email:

"I have been asked if John Furlong ever mentioned working in Burns Lake for several years before 1974 during the course of our interviews for Patriot Hearts. I can say he did not..."...


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And, just in case you missed it... Mr. Mason himself has more recently written about the five (or maybe more; see more on today's revelations in court at the CPablo linked-to story, above) years between when Mr. Furlong first actually came to Canada and when Mr. Furlong said he first came to Canada in his memoir....It was (one of) the later date(s) that the good Mr. Mason dutifully wrote in the published memoir...According to Mr. Mason, writing in the Globe (i.e. not the memoir), those years included the brief period  Mr. Furlong spent time in Burns Lake...You can read about Mr. Mason's more recent non-memoirish writings...Here.
In my opinion, Merv Adey has written a very well-balanced piece on the local press coverage of the trial...Here.


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