Laura Robinson


Laura Robinson is a Canadian sports journalist and author who received national attention for reports on abuse or discrimination against aboriginals, blacks or women athletes or students.

Early life and sports

Robinson grew up in Mississauga, Ontario in the 1970s.
Robinson was a three-time Ontario cycling champion, and a rowing champion for Ontario and Canada in 1979. When she began competitive cycling, she experienced gender discrimination which may have inspired her future focus on such issues in sports for her journalism and author career. Prizes then for men's races were cash or new bikes while female riders earned bubble bath or chocolates. When she was 16 years old, she also had to leap out of a car to avoid advances from a 30 year-old coach.

Journalism and author career

In 1987, a serious bicycle accident in Vancouver was a motivational and financial factor in moving into a journalism career.
In 1990, her first paid article was opinion-editorial published by The Globe and Mail on the need for women athletes to overcome 'pink-ribbon syndromes.' She was a sports columnist for a couple of years for Toronto's Now Magazine and participated with Canadian Broadcast Corporation Fifth Estate for a sports documentary.
Her 1992 article, "Sexual Abuse: Sport’s Dirty Little Secret" was published by the Toronto Star newspaper. In July 1992, a senior editor of the Toronto Star messaged the freelance reporter that obsessiveness in her conversation with him could be admirable, but also possibly irritable. The message was later discussed by Robinson in the 2015 Furlong defamation court case.
In 1994, Robinson twice interviewed Ken Shields, the Order of Canada recipient and former head coach of Canada's national basketball team. The Globe and Mail published her report about possible racial discrimination against black people due to their lack of participation as players on the national team. Shields later cited the interview when testifying in court in 2015 during her lawsuit versus John Furlong.
In 2011, she won silver medal Book of the Year Award from the American Library Association for her children’s book Cyclist BikeList: The Book For Every Rider.
In 2011, a newspaper serving Ontario First Nations asked Robinson to review the bestseller memoir published by John Furlong to investigate possible inaccuracies or omissions, such as his first arrival in Canada in 1969. Later in the year, she published a little-noticed story on the Danish website Play the Game about Furlong's first time in Canada which included comments by former students that were positive and very opposite from the accusations published in 2012.
In July 2012, the Toronto Star reviewed and edited Robinson's first draft of her article about abuse allegations against John Furlong back in 1969-70 and withdrew from publishing it. The Georgia Straight, a weekly newspaper in Vancouver, published it two months later. The article received national attention for accusing Furlong of physically abusing students when he was an instructor at Immaculata Roman Catholic Elementary School in Burns Lake, British Columbia in 1969-70. Ms. Robinson published a second article that same day in the Anishinabek News, an Ontario aboriginal newspaper, in which she wrote one student had gone to the RCMP to say she had been sexually assaulted.
In 2014, based on her knowledge of abuse issues in sports sectors, Robinson was consulted by a University of Ottawa task force addressing the one-year suspension of its men's varsity hockey team for two players charged with sexual abuse.

Robinson/Furlong lawsuits

Furlong and Robinson sued each other for defamation but neither claim was successful in court.
Furlong eventually removed his defamation lawsuit against Robinson and the Georgia Straight for their 2012 article revealing allegations of abuse against him. Due to being a freelancer, the Georgia Straight's insurance policy did not cover her legal costs so she had become a fundraising recipient.
After Furlong's lawsuit Robinson filed a defamation suit against Furlong due to his public claims that her article was not based on evidence. In June 2015, after two weeks of proceedings in Robinson v. Furlong, the BC Supreme Court decided against Robinson's defamation lawsuit against John Furlong for his critical responses to her Georgia Straight article. The judge ruled Ms.Robinson's publications concerning Mr. Furlong cannot be fairly characterized as the reporting of other persons' allegations against him. Rather, the publications constituted an attack by Ms. Robinson on Mr Furlong's character, conduct and credibility. The judge also ruled that each of Mr. Furlong's statements were bona fide and responsive to Ms. Robinson's attack on him and were, accordingly, occasions of qualified privilege made and articulated without malice. Robinson's written statement after the judge's decision did respect the BC Supreme Court for its judgement although she would have preferred a different result. In October, she announced that she would not appeal the judge's decision despite receiving legal advice about inconsistencies between the ruling and evidence.

Published books