VANCOUVER — A lawyer for a freelance journalist says accusations by former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong that his client was an activist rather than a professional journalist ruined her career.
Bryan Baynham told a defamation trial that Laura Robinson has devoted her career to giving a voice to marginalized people and that's what she was doing when she investigated allegations that Furlong abused First Nations children.
Robinson is suing Furlong for comments he made after she wrote a 2012 newspaper article alleging Furlong beat and racially taunted aboriginal students at a Burns Lake, B.C., school more than 40 years ago.
Baynham says that after the story was published, Furlong made multiple statements implying Robinson had fabricated what she wrote because of a personal vendetta.
Furlong has denied any allegations of abuse and says in court documents that he had a right to respond in the media to Robinson's "attacks."
