It was the end of an “unimaginable nightmare,” as John Furlong described the past 2½ years to reporters at BC Supreme Court in Vancouver.
On March 30, a judge dismissed the third and final civil suit alleging he sexually abused aboriginal students while teaching in Burns Lake in the 1960s and 1970s.
In addition to the emotional toll and fall from grace in the public eye, the former CEO of the committee organizing Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics had lost income and job opportunities over the claims, the courts heard.
Despite the dismissal of the lawsuits, returning to the spotlight and rebuilding a reputation in the business world will prove to be very difficult, according to Simon Fraser University marketing professor Lindsay Meredith.
“I’ve always argued in our society there are about two things that are going to just finish you right off. One is charges of child abuse and the other is charges of spousal abuse,” Meredith said.
“As much as we’d like to believe that we’re in a very rational kind of society where we work on evidence-based impulses, these are very emotionally laden concepts. To the extent you get accused of it, this can be devastating.”
Following the case dismissal, Furlong told reporters he would drop a defamation suit against freelance journalist Laura Robinson, who penned the original piece in which eight former students accused Furlong of hitting and emotionally abusing them. (The lawsuits alleging sexual abuse were filed after the story appeared.)
It was a wise move, said Meredith, adding there’s often an impulse to set the record straight and counter-sue when individuals or corporations are on the receiving end of false accusations.
“All you’re doing is keeping the issue alive. And so sometimes the ultimate strategy is to swallow hard, then let time do its thing. And basically with time, the issue begins to slowly be forgotten,” he said.
While Furlong’s lawyer, Claire Hunter, declined an interview request from Business in Vancouver on behalf of her client, the issue will remain alive for now.
After Furlong announced he was dropping his case against Robinson, the reporter released a statement saying her own defamation case against the ex-VANOC chief would go forward following remarks he made about her after the original story appeared.
Vancouver-based crisis communications expert Chris Freimond said it might be difficult for Furlong to regain a foothold in the business world until the courts have dealt with the defamation suit.
“Unfortunately, in the system we live in, even unfounded allegations of wrongdoing can have an enormously damaging impact, particularly until they’re dismissed or proven to be false,” he said.
“People who may have been strong supporters or friends and associates have had difficulty in showing [their support] too openly because they wanted to wait until this was resolved. Hopefully they will all come out now and support him publicly and give him all the resources he needs to help him rebuild his reputation.”
Although VANOC had dissolved by the time Furlong was accused of abusing students, Freimond said other organizations have been put in tough situations when high-ranking individuals faced serious allegations.
“They can chase away clients and customers. They can have a demoralizing effect on staff,” he said. “So getting them resolved quickly and moving on is really important, but often legal cases don’t get resolved quickly so they can linger and be very damaging.”
While most organizations must judge a situation on a case-by-case basis, Freimond said the easiest thing to do is to either encourage the individual to step back or to impose a suspension if he or she is unwilling to take a leave of absence.
Freimond said regardless of the seriousness of the allegations, he’s confident public sympathy for what Furlong went through will work in the former VANOC chief’s favour.
Meredith, however, said the magnitude of the allegations could slow down his image rehabilitation.
The average person walking down the street, he said, may simply hear Furlong’s name and first associate him with the abuse accusations as opposed to the dismissal of the cases.
“The ultimate take would be [that Furlong’s] success running the Olympics speaks well for him and hopefully common sense is going to prevail and people are going to say, ‘Hey, the courts found this guy innocent,’” Meredith said. “And you hope to God that the whole thing gets forgotten because the magnitude sure as hell will not go away.”
