John Furlong: Catherine Locke

Charlie Smith Dept: Furlong's lawyers filed a statement of claim Tuesday targeting the owner of the Georgia Straight newspaper, reporter Laura Robinson, publisher Daniel McLeod and editor Charlie Smith, according to an emailed statement from Furlong spokeswoman Catherine Locke, according to Montreal Gazette. Within hours, Furlong held a news conference with his lawyer to announce legal action and deny he abused anyone. He was also forced to deny a news report published by the CBC, which quoted a former female student who said she had recently recovered memories of sexual abuse and vANCOUVER - John Furlong, whose reputation as the face of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics was tarnished earlier this year by decades-old allegations of abuse at a school in northern British Columbia, has filed a lawsuit targeting the weekly newspaper that first published the claims, a spokeswoman says. The free, weekly newspaper published a story on Sept. 27 that quoted eight former students who claimed Furlong hit, kicked and verbally abused them and other students during his time as a physical education teacher in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.