VANCOUVER—As a young man who immigrated from Ireland, John Furlong channelled his “highest respect” for First Nations by volunteering to teach at an elementary school in northern British Columbia.
Forty years later, he ensured four B.C. First Nations were full partners when he headed the Vancouver Olympics, calling his push for their participation a source of personal pride.
So it was with every instinct he fought anger starting two years ago when “deep and horrible, hurtful and highly damaging” allegations of sex abuse were levelled against him by three aboriginal people, he told reporters on Tuesday, March 31.
Furlong declared the “almost unimaginable nightmare” had finally ended a day after the dismissal by a B.C. Supreme Court judge of the last of three civil lawsuits that have held his family, business interests and public profile hostage.
