Original subtitles

[Brian McGinn] Okay, where should we start?

[in French] First, you need to know...

it is a cartel.

Or we say it's like...

a communist regime.

Or a regime of terror.

Or a bit like the mafia.

No one can stop...

the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers.

They took all my syrup.

They started taking our right to speak.

The Federation owes us a lot of money.

They will turn us all into criminals.

[theme song playing]

[Simon Trepanier] It's an insult in Canada to serve fake maple syrup on the table.

It's like if you are in France and, instead of serving wine,

you are serving water.

Maple syrup for Québecers is part of not only our culture,

but it's running through our veins.

I don't know what I would be doing without maple syrup somewhere in my life.

[Carolyn Jarvis] You grow up in Canada and maple syrup is everywhere.

The maple leaf is on our flag. It's what our country represents.

I'd say it's almost like baseball to Americans.

It is our national treasure.

And we keep it in our Global Strategic Reserve.

It's like the Fort Knox of Canada.

One barrel worth about $1,800.

About 30 times the price of oil.

And if you want to work with maple syrup,

you have to deal with the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers.

[Hans Mercier] It became a very lucrative business.

That's when it went from such a proud industry

to such mercenary work.

[Angèle Grenier in French] The Federation has labeled me a "rebel of the system."

Yes, I rebel.

I fight so producers can regain their freedom from this mafia.

[Normand Urbain in English] They play with words like "mafia."

And, ''We don't own our maple syrup anymore.''

And, my God, I'm gonna shed a tear.

It's sexy to sell something when there's a controversy,

but it doesn't mean you have all the facts.

We wanted this system and we still want this system.

Over 80%.

[Jarvis] There is a war going on in the maple syrup industry in Québec

between people that want a free market

and people that are very proud of this Federation.

And it's really created this environment for theft of maple syrup to happen.

[Julien Beauchamp-Laliberte] August 24, 2012,

the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers

lay a complaint to the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police corps,

reporting a theft at the warehouse.

The crime was really unusual.

It's not about blood, it's not about hair.

It was simply about maple syrup.

It's like, if someone stole milk from your fridge,

and you called the police and said,

"Hey, someone stole the milk from my fridge.

Find all that milk, please."

Syrup does not have a GPS on it, does not have any serial number,

and the worst of it is that you can eat it.

So they build up a special investigator team

with 250 investigators.

It was the biggest crime scene that they ever investigated.

[camera shutter clicking]

For the first two weeks,

the main job of the police

was just to find out which barrels were emptied

or which barrels were still full.

[Luc Briand in French] While we were inspecting the barrels,

we noticed one had a ring of rust.

Syrup does not sweat.

Even if it's cold,

it's not like a glass of water that leaves a ring on the table.

We started opening barrels.

They were filled with water.

[Beauchamp-Laliberte] By the end of the investigation,

around 9,561 barrels had been discovered stolen.

Worth more than $18 million.

It was the biggest theft ever in Québec.

Well, Canada seems to have a bit of a sticky problem

when it comes to maple syrup.

Apparently, lots of it, really lots of it, has been stolen

from a strategic reserve of maple syrup in Québec.

[Jarvis] When I heard about this maple syrup theft,

I thought, ''Are you kidding me?"

People might be less surprised if it was $18 million worth of cocaine,

but this wasn't, it was syrup.

[announcer] Here's Carolyn Jarvis.

Good evening and welcome to 16×9.

Is it time for a rethink across the board?

The journalism that I embark on

can change people's lives and change laws in some cases, too.

But, I mean, it's maple syrup.

My approach is always to walk up to people

and to present myself, and ask them to tell their story to me.

Can we just ask you about your role in the theft?

[in French] I've told everything to my lawyer and the investigators,

so I've got nothing to say.

-Can we have a couple of words with you? -[speaking French]

[Jarvis] There is only one version of the truth and that's the truth.

That's what we are trying to core down into.

What really happened here?

What was the precise chronology of how things unfolded?

And the more I looked into it, the more I realized

that it had all started with the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers.

So, they call Québec the Saudi Arabia of maple syrup,

and the Federation is essentially OPEC.

It's a legal cartel that is employing strict, strict, strict control

with the total goal of keeping prices stable.

There's an enforced quota that tells producers

how much maple syrup they can make in any season.

So, in high-production years, any excess syrup is placed

in the Global Strategic Reserve of maple syrup.

This is the backup maple syrup supply for the world.

If there's a low-production year, the syrup is released into the market.

It's all about supply and demand.

For some producers, it works really well because it keeps the price where it's at.

But there are a lot of people that are really angry right now in Québec

because they want a free market.

They don't want this system that tells them

what they can and cannot do.

It doesn't work for them.

[Grenier in French] I've always had a dream that my husband and I

would be able to retire peacefully in our own sugar bush.

When I started with syrup production, the Federation already existed.

Until 2000, I didn't have any issues.

Then the Federation prepared to take power.

The Federation started an exclusive selling agency

so that we can't sell elsewhere.

It is written in the Federation's regulations,

the sap that runs in my maple trees belongs to them.

I can tell you that up to 90% of producers were against the new system.

We knew we were losing our freedom.

So there was nothing to stop me from fighting.

It's a fight for everyone

to have the right to sell outside of the system of Québec.

It's the Federation or freedom.

[Urbain] I don't need a black market.

I follow the rules,

I'm making ends meet and I'm proud of what I'm doing.

I'm doing it because I want my kids to look up to me

just like I look up to my dad.

My father was the second vice president of the Federation.

It's people like my dad that fought hard and risked everything

and were able to get us to where we are today.

I remember going with my dad in the '80s to the maple syrup conferences.

The places were always half full and there were only people with gray hair.

Back then, everything was a free market, but a lot of people went belly-up.

I remember the next door neighbors cutting down all the maples.

People thought they would get more return

by cutting the trees than by tapping the trees.

There was no real future in the industry.

THE FARMERS ARE ORGANIZING

And then the Federation started controlling the supply of the maple syrup.

At first, a lot of people were discontent,

and then they started seeing the prices going up.

Nowadays, you go to the conferences and you see all of these young people.

There's actually a future.

It's a success story...

but it's not being talked about.

[newsreader] Producers like Angèle Grenier say the Federation is a den of thieves.

[in French]

It's harassment and intimidation.

It's one legal battle after another. I have a stack at my house.

It's like I'm in purgatory.

[Urbain] It's always the same people that are going on TV.

[indistinct chatter]

[Urbain] And it's easy for them to criticize.

What do you propose instead?

A free market?

Tried that, done that, failed.

Playtime is done.

At first, when police came in, they did not have any specific suspects.

And for them, at first, everybody could have been a suspect.

During the investigation, over 223 witnesses were met.

By meeting one witness after another,

the police started to build up a case that concentrates on some people.

Avik Caron was one of the owners of the warehouse.

Before buying the warehouse,

he was convicted of a fraud against an insurance company,

for his involvement in a fake stealing of a car.

So he has already been involved in fraudulent operation.

Someone from the Federation had another theory

about who was one of the main ringleaders of that theft.

From the start, I suspect that the Federation

when the time came to find a scapegoat, they said, "That's Vallières for sure!"

Because Vallières was probably the most-known barrel roller in Québec.

On the black market,

the producers sell everything that they produce over quota

to barrel rollers,

who then resell to exporters.

Well, it's illegal in the sense that

you have to be an authorized buyer to buy and sell.

So you may be liable to a fine of some sort.

And my client had been fined over a million dollars for selling syrup,

which, of course, benefited the Federation.

[Jarvis] You don't think about Richard Vallières

and think about drugs and guns and violent crime.

This is a maple syrup dude that worked in maple syrup,

his dad had a sugar shack in the bush,

and who worked outside the rules of this Federation.

And clearly thumbed his nose at the Federation.

We've got a long history with that guy.

We thought maybe there's a path here,

because that guy knows how to sell maple syrup on the black market.

There is early speculation

that the maple syrup may have already left the province

and headed off the to US or Europe.

How do you get rid of that much maple syrup?

How does it seep back into the system?

[St. Pierre in French] I was the only one in New Brunswick

to start buying maple syrup and exporting it in the US and Europe.

I was buying from big shots like Richard Vallières,

but I have small producers who sell to me, too.

One day, Angèle Grenier said, "I can sell you syrup."

She was frustrated with the Federation.

I think they owed her a lot of money.

The system in Québec,

it's like...

a prostitute market.

The producers work very hard,

but it's the Federation that is paid very nice salaries.

[in English] Just like a pimp.

[in French] The Federation says it's a black market,

but it isn't a black market.

I have a license from Ottawa, and in Ottawa it's a free market.

I didn't sign any contract with this syndicate,

so I will fight until the end.

[Grenier] Okay, now you put it all at once.

Okay. I'm going to stir it a little.

Okay, Katrina.

You'll see, it's going to turn into sugar.

-[Katrina] A trio of three. -A trio of three.

Since I didn't want to conform to their regulations,

they fined me $50,000.

We had several lawyers at the beginning,

but they only thought of how much they could make.

But then we arrived at Hans Mercier, and he really wanted to fight the battle.

[Mercier] When you go to a party

and they say, "What kind of law do you practice?"

and you say, "Maple syrup,"

you usually get a laugh. "Are you serious?" and I say, "Yeah."

I think the Federation started with good intentions.

They wanted to help the producers stabilize their income.

But, at some point, they created this system

that became more and more unhealthy.

They've tried for years to paint the rebels as crooks

and people who would screw the system for financial gain,

but that's simply not true.

These are good people.

But they get hundreds of thousands in penalties,

and in some cases, millions.

I'm the kind of guy, when I see that, I want to change it.

One of the biggest fights we actually had a few years back

was to say that these fines were unconstitutional.

I won the Appeal Court decision.

Six or seven months later,

the government came back in with a special law to bring them back.

That's how powerful the Federation is.

They do the rules. They apply the rules. They cash in the fines.

Judge, jury and executioner.

[train horn sounds]

In material evidence found in the warehouse,

fingerprints, footprints, scratches on the barrels,

forensic investigators were starting to build up a case.

[Briand in French] The Federation's drivers

always use these specific forklifts,

because they do not leave a mark.

But the empty barrels we found had marks on the sides.

We could see this was caused by a forklift.

[Beauchamp-Laliberte] The investigators had to find out

where the forklifts were rented

so they actually just went from one renting shop to another

and see if someone rented that special forklift.

One of the accused left his name at one of the places.

[Jarvis] I'm a journalist.

And we're doing a story investigating the Federation.

And I wanted to speak with you to get your side of the story.

-[Sébastien Jutras] All right. -Okay. We're starting.

Did you transport stolen syrup?

I transport the maple syrup, but I don't know it's stolen.

Nobody ever said to you, "This syrup is stolen."

Nope.

-You were just a driver? -Yeah, that's it.

[speaking French]

[Jarvis] On the surface, Sébastien seems like a really nice guy.

He didn't have a criminal flair to him.

Was he playing dumb? Was he in on it?

What came to light was that he was the connector between Avik Caron...

and Richard Vallières.

[Beauchamp-Laliberte] In 2010, Avik Caron

decided to buy the warehouse in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford.

And in 2011, the Federation came to them

and asked if they can rent some place in the warehouse

to store maple syrup.

When Avik Caron came and saw that maple syrup...

he found himself sitting on a goldmine.

He had no prior relation with maple syrup.

So in order to steal it and actually make money off it,

he needed someone who can do it on the black market.

He asked Sébastien Jutras to find him a guy

who was in the maple syrup black market.

Sébastien Jutras knows Richard Vallières.

For Richard, selling maple syrup on the black market,

that was familiar to him.

But he took it to the next level by engaging with Avik.

[Grenier in French] It was a Sunday, and I was working in the sugar bush.

And I realized that, on the road, there was a car stopped.

[camera shutter clicking]

I was being filmed.

It was a private investigator from the Federation.

[Mercier] The approach of the Federation was, "Break them.

Remove any fight they have in them."

These people would go in their houses,

ask for their electricity bills, their gas bills.

Your personal bank account, what you gave to your wife as alimony, they didn't care.

Oversight isn't bad itself,

but personal freedoms should be the basis of it.

At some point, some of them started saying,

"I thought I lived in a free country. This has to stop."

People were refusing inspection.

[indistinct chatter]

[Mercier] One time, there was a mob of 50 people

waiting for an inspector, and says,

"You better turn back or we'll make you. You're not getting in that sugar bush."

[in French] You're going to wake up somewhere

and you're going to get straightened out.

[Mercier] I would say that was a turning point.

That's when the rebel movement started to gain momentum.

[in French] We want to break up this monopoly, the UPA.

[Mercier] Now you have producers that are trying to take this fight

all the way up to the Supreme Court.

This is gonna be fighting fire with fire.

[indistinct chatter]

[Urbain in French] A photo with Granddad.

[in English] When my father was the regional president,

he had a lot of other people to convince to get on board with the system.

[speaking French]

[in English] Sometimes you get threats.

People would like to continue the way they were doing before.

Sometimes, it gets nasty.

I remember, in 2000, we were tapping the trees.

I look up to the sugar shack.

I saw a lot of smoke.

I don't remember how I got my snow shoes off, and I ran,

and arrived at the door and it was too late.

Our operation was on fire.

We were the first of three.

THE MAPLE SYRUP MAFIA HIT

FEDERATION PRESIDENT'S SUGAR SHACK BURNS

I can't accuse anyone, but I can say this.

FIRE AT PIERRE LEMIEUX'S SUGAR SHACK IS OF CRIMINAL ORIGIN

Three fires in two weeks.

All of those three happened to be regional presidents of the Federation.

Coincidence?

It was the first time I saw my father cry.

What did my father do to deserve this?

Because we get into an assembly and we democratically vote to do certain things,

it gives the right to go to these extremes?

The Madrid is a pit stop, just beside Highway 20 here in Québec.

In June 2011, a meeting occurred between

Avik Caron, Sébastien Jutras and Richard Vallières.

The team decided that Avik Caron's role was to steal the syrup

and Richard Vallières' role was to transport it, transform it and sell it.

At that point, they actually agreed to move on with the theft.

[Jarvis] This was really well coordinated.

With a whole enterprise of people.

[Beauchamp-Laliberte] Barrels were lifted from the warehouse, put into trucks,

and then they'd have to introduce new fake barrels.

Sébastien Jutras brought 104 barrels that were taken from a legitimate company.

[Jarvis] Every single barrel looks exactly the same.

They had to get the exact same paint color to make sure that they were identical.

The same shade of blue, and the right sticker on it

with a Federation stamp that labels them as being Federation barrels

so that nothing looked off.

[Beauchamp-Laliberte] And then they would move the barrels into a warehouse

rented by Richard Vallières.

There, the syrup needed to be transferred

from the original Federation barrels to other containers.

[Jarvis] Some say they took those barrels to a creek

and then put water in on the spot.

[Beauchamp-Laliberte] The barrels were transported back

to the original warehouse.

And then Richard Vallières sells the syrup to Étienne St. Pierre,

who transports to the United States, Germany and Japan.

This was going on from the year 2011 up to 2012.

[ship horn blowing]

[Jarvis] Richard Vallières was over his head.

I think he should have done his research.

I think he should have looked into who he was about to start doing business with

under the table.

If anybody had looked into Avik,

they might have thought twice about doing business with him.

Caron is not a man who is involved with maple syrup.

He's got no history in the maple syrup industry.

This was somebody with a criminal past.

There were allegations that were quite serious. Mafia connections.

People started to feel uncomfortable with what was going on.

But they were in it so deep, they couldn't stop.

They knew that their numbers could be traced,

so they got burner cell phones.

You read those text messages,

and it shows the increasing concern and anxiety about what was going on.

[cell phone chiming]

[reporter] Police are investigating a huge maple syrup heist outside Montreal.

Thousands of gallons of maple syrup were taken from a warehouse.

[cell phone chiming]

[Jarvis] Things all of a sudden started escalating, becoming more scary.

Richard claims that Avik Caron said to him,

"I know where you live."

And that if he spoke out, that he would get shot in the head.

It was in their best interest not to say anything,

or else they were going to go to jail for some serious time.

[interrogator in French] So you can just sit in the back, Sébastien.

Have you had any promises or threats from anyone for doing this?

-No promises. -Okay.

Obviously, they told me it wouldn't hurt my cause,

but no promises.

That's a fact. It's called collaboration in the investigation.

[Jutras] Avik Caron.

I knew people who sold syrup because I was shipping syrup.

[interrogator] Okay.

So he told me, I have some syrup to sell.

I didn't know where it came from.

He asked, "Could you give me your guy's number?"

So I gave him Richard Vallières' number.

Then I saw the barrels.

1+1=2.

I understood.

Because they were making you deliver syrup elsewhere?

[interrogator] Okay.

I understood what was going on.

Sébastien Jutras testified against Avik Caron and Richard Vallières.

But he also testified against Étienne St. Pierre.

In order to make money,

the thieves needed to sell the maple syrup to an exporter.

Étienne St. Pierre was outside of the main theft.

But moving and selling maple syrup produced in Québec was illegal.

[St. Pierre in French] They seized everything, all my syrup.

Then they seized all of the business documents.

They closed my bank accounts.

They said I plotted, but I never plotted.

Richard just called me and he asked me if I wanted syrup.

And I said yes.

The police told me it was all regarding the theft,

but it wasn't just for the theft. I think it was to stop my business.

The Federation doesn't like it when anybody else does business.

For them, it's all about controlling the syrup. 100%.

[reporter 1] Québec police have been busy this week making arrests

in a theft that has made international headlines

because the crime was so unique.

[reporter 2] This week, they've been harvesting their suspects.

Among the charges, theft, conspiracy and fraud.

[Grenier in French] I followed the maple syrup heist from beginning to end.

I've always wanted to support

people who are in a situation similar to mine,

because I know how hard it is.

And I understand them.

For Richard, I think this was his way to protest against the Federation,

but I think maybe he got carried away.

[Mercier] There's fighting in the legal system, like Angèle is doing,

and there's these guys that want to fight in a different way.

But, I mean, it's the same fight.

They are people not afraid to fight the machine.

[reporter] A Canadian jury finds three men guilty

in connection to the Great Maple Syrup Robbery of 2012.

[Grenier in French] What I can say about this whole thing is that

the Federation managed to turn

buyers into criminals.

Here in Québec, drugs are decriminalized,

but they have criminalized maple syrup.

Which is more dangerous for people?

When you've known someone for 15 years,

you know that they are honest.

They're just trying to make a living with maple syrup.

I find this very hard for Mr. St. Pierre.

Like us, all he wanted to do was retire peacefully.

When all this started in 2002, I was still hopeful for my retirement,

because we thought we would win in five to ten years,

and then things would be sorted out.

But things didn't happen the way we wanted them to happen.

Right now, as far as my retirement goes, it is non-existent.

[Urbain] There is something written on our license plates

in the province of Québec called "Je me souviens." I remember...

Well, I remember all the effort that my father put into this industry.

He did a hell of a good job.

In terms of working with maple syrup,

I believe that this year is going to be the first time

where our family could live off it.

It was impossible in the '80s to think about that.

In the past 15 years,

we have doubled our exports and tripled its value.

And if you look at the industry which was worth less than 100 million 20 years ago,

now it's worth half a billion in the province of Québec alone.

What we did is, we were the locomotive in the industry.

I have a future now,

because of the decisions that were made back then.

Without the Federation, there would still be maple syrup being done

because it's part of our genes.

But it wouldn't be an industry.

[Mercier] It was always David against Goliath.

You truly are fighting the machine.

And, you know, I wouldn't make this kind of crusade fight

if I was afraid of these kind of things.

I am going to keep fighting to retrieve personal freedom in Québec.

Every controlled economy in the world has always failed.

If it continues at this rate and it does not adapt,

it only has a few years left in it before the system crumbles.

Those people want to deal with economy without any rules.

They say that the strong are going to live through

and the bad ones are gonna die, and it's too bad for them.

They don't understand that it's because of the rules

that bankruptcy in maple syrup production in Québec Province

is almost not existing.

With the Federation, there's no limit where maple syrup can go.

[Urbain] I am not a mafia man. I am an entrepreneur.

And when I talk about the future, my eyes light up,

because I see opportunity.

Right now, there are 1,200 people waiting to get into the system.

People want to get in because it's profitable.

It wasn't before.

[Grenier in French] I don't think too much about the future.

Because thinking about the future makes me sick.

Why bankrupt people like this?

Why not let us live?

We are going to lose all of our freedom.

Everybody's angry. And this theft renewed that discussion.

The Federation says that a theft of this size will not happen again.

But if the division in this province keeps escalating,

it's conceivable it could happen again.

[music playing]