Large bank accounts and famous names did not prove to be assets when John Bitove Jr. and George Cohon applied for membership in Toronto's exclusive Rosedale Golf Club.
The two powerful businessmen were unsuccessful because of arbitrary decisions and discriminatory practices by members of the 111-year-old club, a civil court in Toronto was told yesterday.
The testimony of Michael Geluch, who has brought a $475,000 lawsuit against the club for wrongful dismissal, sheds light on the criteria it used to select new members.
"It's not about money," Mr. Geluch explained. "It's who you were and who you knew."
Mr. Bitove was president of the Toronto Raptors basketball team. His membership application was rejected without explanation. He was a victim of the club's arbitrary membership process, Mr. Geluch told Madam Justice Susan Himel of the Ontario Superior Court.
Mr. Cohon, chairman of McDonald's Restaurants of Canada, was forced to withdraw his application in 1996 or risk being blackballed, court heard.
"Members felt that should Mr. Cohon become a member, it would be opening the floodgates to more Jewish members," the 60-year-old testified.
There were other reasons members gave once word spread about Mr. Cohon's application, Mr. Geluch said in response to questioning from his lawyer, Malcolm MacKillop. "Members said they did not want Mr. Cohon because he was loud, aggressive and not a good golfer."
Had Mr. Cohon not heeded the club's advice to withdraw his application, it would have been rejected because of a "blackball system," under which candidates would be rejected if they received three negative votes, Mr. Geluch said.
He told the court that there were other victims, but he was not asked to provide names.
The club eventually changed its membership process and Mr. Cohon's application was accepted on his second try in 1997. He became the club's first Jewish member.
Mr. Geluch spent 12 years overseeing the operation of the club, located adjacent to the exclusive Bridle Path area and its multimillion-dollar homes in north-end Toronto.The West Don cuts through the large course, which is tucked between Mount Pleasant Road and Bayview Avenue north of Lawrence Avenue East.
Mr. Geluch said his comments about the unfairness of the manner in which Mr. Cohon's application was treated played a role in his own dismissal in the fall of 1997. He said he told board officials that he was concerned about public perception of the rejection.
Mr. Geluch said he received excellent performance reviews during his years overseeing the club's operation, so it caught him by surprise when he was told he was fired from his $129,000-a-year job effective immediately on Halloween in 1997.
"I felt I was tossed out with the garbage," he told the judge, adding that the club never explained why he was dismissed.
He was unemployed for 13 months but eventually landed a job with a Vancouver golf club.
In opening remarks on Monday, lawyer Brian Mulroney, (not the former prime minister) who represents the golf club, told the court Mr. Geluch was fired with cause.
The allegations are that he mismanaged money, intimidated employees, took food and wine from the club for personal use, sexually harassed a female worker and hired a club employee to build some furniture for him, but failed to pay him.
Mr. Geluch vehemently denied all the accusations.
He told Judge Himel that the club had a surplus of $1-million when he was fired, but only $300,000 when he started working there in 1985.
He said he had a very good relationship over the years with all the staff, yelling at several out of frustration when they did not do their work. But he acknowledged he had rocky relationships with some of the club presidents, who changed annually. He said that was because they treated the club as if they could do whatever they wanted without following rules and procedures.