Laura Robinson Canadian sports journalist
Executive summary
Laura Robinson is a Canadian sports journalist and author best known for three decades of investigative work exposing sexual abuse and racial and gender discrimination in Canadian sport, including a 1992 Toronto Star feature widely cited as the first major Canadian newspaper piece on sexual abuse in sport [1][2]. Her career includes books, documentary work and contentious public disputes — most notably her reporting on John Furlong that led to high-profile legal battles and courtroom scrutiny of her methods [1][3][4].
1. Who is Laura Robinson: the profile and platforms
Robinson is described in multiple profiles as a freelance Canadian sports journalist and author born around 1957, whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and a range of magazines and broadcast outlets including CBC and TSN [5][6]; she has also contributed essays and commentary to outlets such as Truthdig and the Sports Integrity Initiative, where her investigative focus on abuse in sport is repeatedly highlighted [7][2].
2. Core reporting: sexual abuse, race and gender in sport
Robinson’s reporting made sexual abuse and hazing in junior hockey and other sports a public issue in Canada after her 1992 Toronto Star feature “Sexual Abuse: Sport’s Dirty Little Secret,” and the related Fifth Estate documentary that followed, work for which she and collaborators won investigative recognition [2][8]. She wrote Crossing the Line: Sexual Assault in Canada’s National Sport in 1998 and has published other books addressing women, sport and sexuality, demonstrating a sustained thematic focus on how sporting institutions handle — or hide — abuse and discrimination [1][9].
3. High-profile conflict: the John Furlong reporting and legal aftermath
Robinson’s critical reporting on John Furlong, the VANOC CEO, drew national attention and generated protracted legal and public controversy: her articles alleging past abuse and her follow-up pieces in Indigenous outlets prompted a defamation context and a widely covered trial in which her motives and methods were examined under cross-examination [1][3][4]. Coverage indicates the Furlong matter became a test case for the limits of investigative reporting in sports and Indigenous-related allegations, with media such as Maclean’s and the National Post documenting both Robinson’s persistence and the courtroom pushback she faced [3][4].
4. Recognition and advocacy beyond controversy
Robinson’s investigative work has translated into honors and platform invitations: she received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from York University in recognition of long-term commitment to the rights of women, children and Indigenous peoples in sport, and she continues to speak and write about systemic problems in athletics and sport governance [2]. Her reporting and documentary work are credited in multiple profiles and podcast interviews for helping shift public conversation about junior hockey culture, athlete safety and institutional accountability [10][8].
5. Impact, critics and the record’s limits
Her work is widely credited with forcing conversations and investigations into entrenched patterns of abuse and discrimination in Canadian sport, yet it has also attracted fierce criticism and legal scrutiny that questioned her sourcing, persistence and perceived agenda, illustrating the polarizing nature of adversarial investigative journalism [4][3]. Public records assembled in profiles and news coverage document both her breakthroughs and the contentious episodes, but available reporting does not exhaustively resolve every contested claim from the Furlong disputes or provide a complete legal chronology beyond reported court coverage, and further primary legal documents would be needed for a definitive legal history [3][4].