A golf pro snubbed for his political stripes claims he lost about $100,000 in earning potential over the past decade while also having his dream career pursuit derailed.
Steve Dowling testified before a Human Rights Commission panel Wednesday in Charlottetown, trying to make a case of significant fiscal harm due to discrimination.
Dowling lost his job at The Links at Crowbush Cove the Islands premier golf course which is owned and operated by the government following a failed foray into politics.
He took a leave of absence in 1996 from his job as a golf pro at Crowbush to run as a Liberal candidate in a provincial election.
The Tories won the vote, Dowling did not win his seat and the next golf season he was not back at Crowbush.
The then new government eliminated the position of golf pro at its courses and did not allow Dowling to apply for the newly created job of golf shop supervisor at the course.
Dowling filed a human rights complaint and earned a partial victory.
In 2004, commissioner Angela Cormier found that government had not discriminated in eliminating the golf pro positions, but had held Dowlings Liberal ties against him when it didnt allow him to apply for the supervisors job.
At the time, Cormier awarded Dowling a total of $9,600 in damages, but declined his request that she convene further hearing days to look into his allegations of lost earnings. Unhappy with the decision, Dowling asked the Supreme Court to review his case.
Chief Justice Jacqueline Matheson ordered the Human Rights Commission to set a new hearing date to look into the question of financial compensation for Dowling.
He took the witness stand Wednesday armed with his own piece of accounting that runs from 1997 to 2006.
He submitted his total earnings over that time, which included work at Holland College and several years as a golf pro at the Summerside Golf Course, as tallying just under $500,000.
Dowling calculates his potential pay for the same period, if he had continued at Crowbush in the revised role of golf shop supervisor for six months of the year combined with teaching at Holland College the remainder of the time, at a little over $590,000.
The end result, he testified, is the government potentially deprived him of almost $100,000 in earnings over 10 years by giving him the cold shoulder.
Dowling, who is currently general manager of the Belvedere Golf Course, felt he was well positioned in his job at Crowbush in 1996 to eventually replace Jack Kane in overseeing the then three provincially run golf courses in P.E.I.
He said he was near the top
pillar of golf employment in the province as golf pro at the Islands top course.
The loss of the job was a tough pill to swallow.
He saw his rising star take a
decided fall. He was even forced
to affiliate himself with a
driving range in Charlottetown
in order to maintain his CPGA
card.
His wife, Leslie Collins, gave emotional testimony Wednesday as to the level of hurt and humiliation Dowling experienced as a result of the Tory government driving him off Crowbush.
He was devastated, she said. The termination was very, very hard on Stephen.
Collins said her husband embraced his role at Crowbush, working seven days a week from early spring to fall.
The job held him in high standing in the community and allowed Dowling to be immersed in the sport
he has loved since a child all on a highest possible playing field in the province.
Steven is all about golf, she
said.
He was very focused on his job with the government.
She said her husband had his dream cut off by government.
Collins and Dowling are the only witnesses to be called.
Final submissions will be made Friday.
Golf pro claims political discrimination cost him nearly $100,000 in earnings
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