Ontario's "Gestapo Affair" and the Death of Alvin Rowe

On August 18, 1947, Alvin Rowe and his 7-year-old son died in a plane crash in Lake St. Clair. Rowe's fiancée, Betty Pioprowski, and Rowe's brother and pilot, Howard, were rescued. Howard Rowe operated a plane taxi service near Detroit and he had taken the party up for a midnight flight. Howard explained that "without warning, the plane went into a spin." Witnesses said the plane exploded when it hit the water.

Alvin Rowe was a former Ontario Provincial Police officer and, at the time of his death, was a prominent organizer and speaker for the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in Ontario. While still serving in the OPP, Rowe came to public prominence for his role in the “Gestapo Affair” during the spring 1945 Ontario election.

Windsor Star, August 18 1947

In the spring of 1945, the Second World War was almost over. Hitler was dead and the Nazi government had acceded to unconditional surrender. In Canada's roaring industrial heartland, Premier George Drew of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party was heading into an election to secure a majority government after two years of minority rule.

At the time of the election, Rowe had been an OPP officer for 23 years and was assigned to a secret OPP unit spying on the CCF and Canadian Congress of Labour members. The secret unit was ostensibly established to find CCF and CCL ties to the Communist Party. Rowe informed Ontario CCF leader Ted Jolliffe that the unit had been established by Premier Drew, who was a virulent anti-Communist and anti-Semite. Jolliffe made Rowe's allegations public over the radio in May 1945 less than two weeks before election day on June 4, declaring that Drew had been operating a "Gestapo" unit in Ontario.

Drew immediately denied the allegations he had created the unit and outmaneuvered Jolliffe by calling a Royal Commission led by Justice LeBel. On June 4, Drew won a majority and the CCF's opposition status was lost. Rowe's "Gestapo" allegations were widely criticized in the press as costing the CCF its chance to form government only a year after the CCF took power in Saskatchewan. Many CCFers blamed the Communist Party of Canada for running "independent labour" candidates against the CCF in a non-compete pact with the Ontario Liberals.

Drew's majority secure, the LeBel Commission got underway. LeBel confirmed a secret OPP unit had targeted the CCF and CCL but claimed no connection to Drew himself. Drew declared himself vindicated of Rowe's allegations. Much of LeBel's anger during the inquiry was directed at the whistleblower, Alvin Rowe. LeBel described Rowe's actions as "most improper", "inexcusable and reprehensible" and went on to describe Rowe as "gullible".

Dismissed from the OPP in late 1945, Rowe sued Premier Drew for libel in March 1946, a month after reporting he was offered a $15,000 bribe to stay on "the government side" shortly after Jolliffe's "Gestapo" radio broadcast.

No longer working for the OPP, Rowe began giving popular public talks on the Gestapo Affair, and called the OPP “an arm of big business”. He described his OPP career as witnessing “20 years of conspiracy against the common man.” In April 1947, Drew’s Attorney General, Leslie Blackwell, attacked Rowe, claiming he had "contacted members of the police and attempted to subvert their loyalty" during the famous Hamilton Steel Strike of 1946.

Three decades after the plane crash that killed Rowe and his son, researchers discovered Drew had perjured himself at the LeBel Commission and was indeed receiving reports directly from the special OPP unit. Soon thereafter, in 1977, Drew's family has closed access to the relevant files at the Public Archives of Canada. They remain closed today.