John Furlong on abuse allegations: 'I forgive all of it'

Former Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong says hefelt like he was being accused of letting Canada down when anewspaper published allegations that he abused First Nationsstudents more than 40 years ago.

The man who steered the 2010 Winter Olympic Games has deliveredhis first major speech in three years to a packed, welcomingaudience at a Board of Trade event in Vancouver.

Furlong says he had many friends before Laura Robinson wrote anarticle in the Georgia Straightthat included allegations he beatand taunted students at a northern B.C. school in 1969 and 1970.

He says that when the article was published in September 2012,his world came crashing down and many of his friends disappeared.

"The day that my world came crashing down, I know I had thousands of friends, definitely hundreds of friends here and around the world and it just seemed like almost immediately... most of them went away."

Robinson filed a defamation suit over Furlong's public commentsafter the article was published, and last month a B.C. Supreme Courtjudge ruled he had a right to defend himself from her attacks on hischaracter, conduct and credibility.

While the judge found numerous errors in Robinson's reporting,the allegations in the article have not been tested in court becauseFurlong dropped his own defamation suit earlier this year.

"Well, I forgive all of it," he said when asked if he had forgiven Robinson."I haven't been asked to and I don't think I might be ever asked but I just let it all go."