"According to staff e-mails seen by The Globe, the union’s top official, executive secretary-treasurer Jason Rowe, and his wife, Stacey Rowe, who is also a senior union official, have left their posts. Tom Cardinal, the union’s president and chief of staff, also resigned"
IS THE $4 MILLION HOUSE SCAM JUST THE TIP OF THE ICE BERG.MAYBE NOT BUT
THIS HAS TO BE THE FASTEST DIRTY DOUG TAKE DOWN OF A STOOGE ON RECORD
"Jason Rowe, Stacey Rowe and Tom Cardinal out after media reports of multimillion-dollar homes bought by union"
“Please be advised that, effective yesterday, Jason Rowe, Tom Cardinal, and Stacey Rowe resigned from their positions with the Carpenters' Regional Council,” reads Sivertson’s brief email, sent on Friday.
CONSTRUCTION UNION BOSS QUITS AMID PROBE OVER $4 -MILLION HOME
JEFF GRAY
The head of the Carpenters’ Regional Council, one of Canada’s largest construction unions, has resigned amid an internal probe prompted by a Globe and Mail investigation that revealed the organization had bought a $4-million house that he and his wife lived in for two years.
According to staff e-mails seen by The Globe, the union’s top official, executive secretary-treasurer Jason Rowe, and his wife, Stacey Rowe, who is also a senior union official, have left their posts. Tom Cardinal, the union’s president and chief of staff, also resigned.
A spokesman for the CRC, which is headquartered in Vaughan, Ont., north of Toronto, did not respond to requests for comment. Mr. Rowe did not respond to messages asking for comment and Ms. Rowe and Mr. Cardinal could not be reached.
The CRC, which says it has 60,000 members in 30 locals across Ontario and Western Canada, oversees hundreds of millions in pension funds and has received millions from the federal and Ontario governments for skills-training programs.
Earlier this month, The Globe reported that the CRC was placed under the supervision of its U.S.-based parent union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, which launched an internal probe.
The move followed a Globe investigation, published in April, that revealed the union’s purchase of the house, which Mr. Rowe and his wife lived in from 2022 to 2024.
The staff e-mails obtained by The Globe say this investigation has not been completed.
The 2022 purchase of the $4-million home in Nobleton, Ont., not far from the union’s Vaughan headquarters, wasn’t the only real estate transaction that has raised questions.
The Globe has also found that the union bought a second house in the same area in 2024, for $2.5-million. The CRC did not respond to questions about why the second house was purchased or whether any senior union officials had lived in it.
Property records show that the same numbered company that purchased the first home also purchased the second. Mr. Rowe and his wife were both listed as directors of the numbered company at the time, and Mr. Rowe was listed as acting for the company on both transactions.
The two properties were transferred for $0 to the Carpenters’ Regional Council Building Corp. that year. The union has said it owns both that corporation and the numbered company but has not explained the reason behind the transfers or the use of the numbered company.
The second property is now listed for sale. According to the real estate listing, it has four bedrooms, five bathrooms and a family room with a 20-foot ceiling.
Earlier this month, the U.S. parent union’s general president, Douglas McCarron, sent a letter to union leaders, obtained by The Globe, saying that his organization would investigate the newspaper’s revelations about the Ontario-based branch’s purchase of the $4-million home.
Mr. McCarron did not respond to a request for comment.
The union has acknowledged that Mr. Rowe and his wife lived in the property from 2022 to 2024. It was later rented out.
The Globe reported that the union’s executive board was not told about the first house and its intended purpose and did not vote on the purchase, citing a source familiar with the union’s decision-making. The Globe did not name the source because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the union’s internal matters.
After first telling The Globe that the $4-million home “was not purchased for the use of any one person,” the CRC later said the house was needed, on a short-term basis, for Mr. Rowe, who lived in Manitoba before being brought in to lead a restructuring of the organization.
The CRC said the decision to purchase the first house “was disclosed to members of our executive board” and “approved through our established governance processes, including oversight under the organization’s bylaws.”
But the union did not directly answer questions on whether the executive board had voted on the purchase or provide details of what it says was disclosed.
At the time of the purchase of this first house, the CRC was also under a form of supervision known as a trusteeship, imposed by its U.S. parent. This allowed for Mr. Rowe to be installed as executive secretary-treasurer and left control of the CRC with him and a handful of appointed trustees.
Neither the CRC nor its U.S. parent have answered questions about this previous trusteeship. According to a disclosure document filed with the U.S. Department of Labor in April, 2022, it was imposed to “correct corruption or financial malpractice.” But the document provides no details of any allegations or what was done to address them at the time.
Under Mr. Rowe’s leadership, the CRC endorsed Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives for the first time, just before the 2025 election – after the union had received $27-million from the province’s Skills Development Fund.
In pictures posted on the Premier’s Facebook page from a February, 2025, campaign event marking the endorsement, Mr. Ford can be seen shaking Mr. Rowe’s hand and applauding as he speaks to union members.
The CRC also endorsed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals before the federal election that year.
CARPENTERS UNION OFFICIALS RESIGN AS PROBE CONTINUES
Three officials at a major Ontario construction union, including its top leader, are out as an internal investigation into the union’s finances continues.
Jason Rowe, Stacey Rowe and Tom Cardinal resigned from the Carpenters’ Regional Council (CRC) on Thursday, according to an email sent on behalf of Dan Sivertson, international business representative at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBCJA), the CRC’s U.S. parent union.
Jason Rowe was the CRC’s top leader as its executive-secretary treasurer, as well as the U.S. union’s Canadian district vice-president. His wife, Stacey Rowe, has also served as a CRC official.
Cardinal was the CRC’s chief of staff, another top official.
An investigation into the Carpenters’ Regional Council by its American parent was launched after The Globe and Mail reported that the CRC had purchased a $4-million home north of Toronto, in which Rowe and his wife lived.
On Friday, The Trillium reported that the CRC purchased a second, $2.5-million home in the same area. It is unclear how that house was used.
The union has rented out the $4-million home and has been trying to sell the $2.5-million home since February.
“Please be advised that, effective yesterday, Jason Rowe, Tom Cardinal, and Stacey Rowe resigned from their positions with the Carpenters' Regional Council,” reads Sivertson’s brief email, sent on Friday.
“The International continues their open investigation,” the email reads, referring to the UBCJA.
The CRC and Sivertson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The CRC is a major supporter of the Progressive Conservatives and has been one of the top beneficiaries of the Ford government’s controversial Skills Development Fund (SDF).
The union hosted a fundraiser for Labour Minister David Piccini’s riding association in 2024, and months later received the largest grant in that round of SDF funding at $14 million. Shortly after, the CRC announced it was endorsing Doug Ford’s PC Party for the first time.
I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT DAN SIVERSTON AND HIS INVESTIGATIVE CLOWN TEAM WERE STILL STUCK AT THE BORDER MAKING BALLOON ANIMALS
AND ONCE AGAIN DOUGY WHO IS DAN SIVERTSON.NOT ONE OF YOUR USUAL STOOGES.DID YOU GET YOURSELF A NEW USED CONDOM SALESMAN??
17 comments:
Good riddance to Jason the drunk rowe.
https://www.fieracapital.com/en/press-releases/press-release-123020/
ULLICO has this exact same scam financed with UBC pension money already running in the US. It was called the Separate J fund and now has been renamed the J for Jobs fund. They told the same exact lie about all being built with Union labor. So what ULLICO cannot operate in Canada??
He has been crooked...and a crook for a long time. He entered his HR person (Samantha Okabe) and his daughter as journeypersons so they could benefit from the International union. Total lack of respect for the trades. Instead of promoting real women in the trades he took a photograph of the same two in front of the Human Rights building to post at the international training center to promote women in the trades. He is a true narcissist. Hope there is a deep dive into this...CRA are you watching?
We all have to know that we will never improve as a respectful and responsible organization until we get past the regime of Douglas McCarron and each and every corrupt minion that he has chosen/appointed
The members of Prairie Arctic Regional Council received a letter on November 2, 2021 that our newly elected EST was no longer the EST and we had been placed under trusteeship. Jason Rowe was to assume responsibilities. The vote for our EST just happened months earlier which clearly illustrated how much the UBC under Doug McCarron valued a democratic vote. This scenario, I'm sure was similar in Alberta and ultimately it led to Jason being in charge of Canada as the Canadian Regional Council was born. No vote, no transparency. Purely a power grab. I still have a copy of that letter signed by Jason.
I have the trusteeship letter signed by McCarron dated Nov 1,2021 but not Rowes letter. Want to trade.I cant believes the candy ass bitch POS McCarron said he needed to impose a trusteeship because the Prairie Arctic Regional Council might not be good enough to merge if he wanted it to.
Was there ever a hearing conducted and what was the real motive for the little bitch imposing a Trusteeship
The letter states “DVP Rowe’s priorities will concentrate on growing our market share and memberships of UBC Locals 343, 1443, 1614, 1515, 1021, and 1985. The reorganization will also focus on staffing and contractor/client partnerships in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.”
It evidently is just concerned about growth and contractors. Nothing about ensuring the best interests of the MEMBERS are met.
Never a hearing. In my opinion it was all a ploy to get one regional council in Canada and get the pension funds in a position where the Union would have sole discretion on how to “invest”.
Does it matter?? If none of us are going to do more than complain, McCarron will carry on uninterrupted and unaccountable as he has for the last 30 years.
I should know as I’m one of the working members who just lives job to job check to check.
"If none of us are going to do more than complain" Actually not sure where you get none from. Some do much more then complain and some have spent millions in legal fees fighting back against McCarron and his cronies. Perhaps you mean that if people don't fight according to your opinions on how the battle should be fought it is just complaining??We hear a lot to talk on how the members must stand up, it must be a grassroots campaign and anyone that does not agree with their vision should STFU. Yet we have no positive result from the efforts of these self proclaimed labor messiah’s, who have the balls to demand we all follow them over the cliff or STFU, to offer to members who are willing to take the risk and stand up. As a matter of fact what we do have is multiple examples of McCarron teaching members the reality of Dougy’s world.
That reality of Doug’s world is that Dougy has firmly entrenched himself financially and by buying political protection and agency employees. He is sitting on $837 million in assets and he has spent and will spend Millions to crush any opposition. Until you find a way to get the cash needed to fight a battle with this POS, find a way to punch a hole in the wall he has built and find a way to stop his purchase of political protection you can organize all the soldiers you want but any leader knows if you cannot provide them with the arms to fight the battle you send them to fight a battle already lost. Any soldier with an IQ over a rock is naturally going to tell you to go .. yourself when you ask again and that would make them much smarter then you. Maybe the legends in their own minds should stop ridiculing and talking shit about members who decide for themselves how to fight and certainly do not need anybody to advise them on the best way to fight. While the victory’s may be limited there have been victory’s unlike the phony labor messiahs who spend their days soap boxing a losing “platform”.
Well said.
As for labor messiahs and telling people how to fight McCarron and his control of millions of dollars I don’t care what anyone does or doesn’t do. I know I’m just one of thousands of members that would prefer a change but don’t want to wage that war my self. Most of us complain about our sad state of affairs but we just put up with it and go to work. That’s a fact.
Can members take action? I think if a member or members filed a RICO or RTW case in Federal court it would win on the merits and based on recent legal precedents. McCarron has bought a lot of protection but he hasn’t bought every conservative federal judge. Far from it.
Members could also challenge the gross misuse of members dues money by Union employees to buy them selves steak dinners, stays in five star hotels, etc.
Most of the members that have fought back against McCarron have been EST’s he removed from office, or staff he sexually harassed. They are fighting for a pay day to their benefit not ours
To each their own. For what it matters I’d financially support a real legal battle against McCarron. But I doubt one will materialize. It is what is.
Happy Friday
To be clear. The first part of my post was directed at the just complain statement .It was to answer that there are people who have done much more then just complain and are still at it. I also offered my opinion that the fight against McCarron must come from BOTH the top and the bottom and all avenues must be pursued and none ignored. The labor messiah content was directed at another who suffers from delusions of grandeur and talks shit about the efforts of others because in his divine wisdom it is not how the battle must be fought.
I know there are a number of members who have taken action against McCarron but it’s usually of a counter punch response to something he did to them.
Anyone who fights back anyway they can is a champ in my book.
I and many other members like me don’t want to do more than complain because we are working members in too deep trying to cross the finish line to retirement. I know we would support a case against the UBC if someone filed one. But that hasn’t happened yet.
I guess my goal is to highlight the fact that knowing of McCarron's misdeeds doesn't amount to much unless someone takes action. Something most of us have avoided doing to date to our loss.
At the least, publishing his misdeeds is a true thorn in his side he can’t remove.
Doug your trash!!
To all other working members, enjoy the weekend!!
Rowe has been a detriment to the entire union movement.
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