The two women filed a civil claim against Furlong in July,
seeking compensation for the abuse and alleging defamation after he suggested
at a press conference in September of last year that unnamed people were lying
in an attempt to extort him.
Former VANOC CEO John Furlong has filed a statement of
defence in B.C. Supreme Court denying allegations that he sexually and
physically abused two female students at a Burns Lake elementary school in the
late 1960s and 1970s.
Former VANOC CEO John Furlong has denied abusing two former
students at a Burns Lake elementary school in a statement of defence filed in
B.C. Supreme Court today.
Grace West and Beverly Abraham both claim to have been
sexually and physically abused by Furlong while he was a physical education
teacher in the Burns Lake area in late 1960s and early 1970s.
In court documents filed Monday in the two cases, Furlong
said he doesn't recall if he taught West and Abraham during his time as a
volunteer teacher at the Catholic school in northern British Columbia more than
four decades ago.
"The defendant denied that he sexually molested or
physically abused or engaged in any inappropriate conduct in respect of the
plaintiff," said two identical statements of defence filed in B.C. Supreme
Court.
The two women filed civil claims in the summer against
Furlong and against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese after allegations of
physical abuse surfaced earlier this year against Furlong in connection to his
time teaching physical education to First Nations students at Immaculata
School.
West, 53, alleges Furlong kicked her in the buttocks almost
every day, as well as in the legs and back, always when nobody was around to
witness the abuse. She said he called her names, including "dirty
Indian," and sexually molested her in a change room after gym class
approximately once a week.
In her statement of claim, West said she told her father,
who confronted Furlong and removed her from the school. West said other parents
also went to the diocese with complaints, which failed to act.
Abraham's statement of claim said she was 11 years old when
sexual abuse by Furlong began. Abraham, now 55, said Furlong also asked nuns
working at the school to physically punish her by having her kneel on the floor
while they struck her open palms repeatedly.
The women are also seeking compensation in their civil
claims for defamation over Furlong's suggestion at a news conference that
unnamed persons had threatened to make accusations in order to extort him.
In the court documents filed Monday, Furlong said it was the
plaintiffs themselves who made their identities public. "The plaintiff
self-published the false allegations that she had been sexually or otherwise
abused by the defendant," it said. "If the plaintiff has suffered
loss, damage and expense ... it was caused by the plaintiff's self-publication
of the false allegations...."
Furlong maintains that his statements at the press
conference were truthful.
The allegations against Furlong surfaced in an article in
the weekly Georgia Straight newspaper last fall, which suggested Furlong lied
about his past at the Catholic school and physically and verbally abused First
Nations students there. Furlong did not mention his time as a Catholic school
teacher in Burns Lake or Prince George, B.C., in his memoir "Patriot
Hearts."
The man who was the face of the 2010 Olympic Games and is
now the executive chairman of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC vehemently denied the
allegations, and launched his own defamation lawsuits against the newspaper and
journalist Laura Robinson.
Robinson made a new round of allegations in her statement of
defence, including accusations that Furlong sexually assaulted a former
common-law spouse.
Another former student also came forward today, filing a
lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court that alleges he, too, was abused by John Furlong.
None of the claims have been proven in court.
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