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Q: What did Furlong do?

A: At first he simply denied it. Then he sued for libel, eventually dropping a claim against the Georgia Straight to focus on Robinson as the true source of the libel. Furlong ultimately dropped this case after the last of the three civil cases failed.

Q: How did the civil cases go?

A: Disastrously for the plaintiffs, quite well for Furlong. One woman, Grace Jessie West, whom Robinson helped draft a statement, sued for physical and sexual abuse while at Immaculata in 1969-70. This case was dismissed after a judge found she had not even attended the school at that time. Daniel Morice filed another suit, but it was dismissed after it was shown he had been compensated for abuse at another school during the time he claimed to be abused. Abraham, whose complaint had been dismissed by the RCMP, consented to the dismissal of her civil case after the lawyer who represented all three withdrew from the files.

Q: Was that the end of it?

A: Not by a long shot. Denied her chance to cross-examine Furlong, Robinson filed her own lawsuit, claiming he libelled her as an activist posing as a journalist, with a habit of reckless inaccuracy. This was the only action that went to trial, and Robinson lost. A judge found her writing about Furlong “cannot be fairly characterized as the reporting of other persons’ allegations against him. Rather, the publications constitute an attack by Ms. Robinson on Mr. Furlong’s character, conduct and credibility.”

Furlong’s rebuttals were in direct reply to this “attack,” and so they were protected by a kind of legal privilege, which he did not exceed, nor use with malice, the judge found.

National Post

jbrean@nationalpost.com

Twitter.com/JosephBrean