VANCOUVER -- A journalist who is suing former Vancouver Olympic CEO John Furlong for defamation says she was devastated and shocked after he implied she tried to extort money from him.
Laura Robinson told a civil trial that she was deeply disturbed by remarks Furlong made after her article was published in the Georgia Straight newspaper about his past in Burns Lake, B.C.
"There was no inkling in all my questions that I was part of some extortion scheme. It's a federal offence. It was just shocking," she testified on Tuesday.
The story included allegations by eight former students that Furlong had beaten and taunted them while working as a physical education teacher at a Roman Catholic elementary school in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
At a news conference in September 2012 after the story was published, Furlong said that he had been contacted prior to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and was told that "for a payment it could be made to go away." He did not say who contacted him.
His lawyer John Hunter told reporters outside the courthouse Tuesday that his client "never" accused Robinson of extortion, but he declined to elaborate.
Hunter has said that Furlong's defence at trial will be qualified privilege, meaning he had a right to respond to Robinson's "attacks." The lawyer has not yet had an opportunity to cross-examine Robinson.
Furlong told reporters at the time that he hadn't received a single phone call from the newspaper to verify the story. He absolutely denied any wrongdoing and accused Robinson of a "shocking lack of diligence" and a "personal vendetta."
Robinson testified that she gave the former Olympics boss every opportunity to respond through his lawyer. She called Furlong's allegation of a vendetta "unfair and inaccurate," saying she met him on just three occasions before the story's publication to ask questions as a journalist.
She told the trial her freelance income has dropped from $52,600 in 2011 to $10,700 in 2014 and she spent more than $150,000 defending herself from Furlong's defamation suit, which he dropped in March after the last of three sexual abuse suits against him was dismissed.
In a statement made to media in October 2013, Furlong alleged that Robinson had brought a sexual abuse complaint to the RCMP on behalf of Beverly Abraham, one of the former students in her story.
"There is absolutely no foundation for that statement whatsoever. I was completely shocked that he would say that," Robinson testified.
Abraham swore in an affidavit that Furlong had inappropriately touched her. Robinson did not include any sexual abuse allegations in her Georgia Straight story.
Robinson testified that she knew of Abraham's plans to go to the RCMP as well as file a lawsuit against Furlong, but that she did not participate in them.
The First Nations woman dropped the lawsuit in 2014 and two other sexual abuse claims were dismissed earlier this year. One of the accusers was found to have attended a different school at the time of the alleged abuse, while another failed to show up in court.
