It could be said that The Sticky, directed by Michael Drowsy and Joyce Wong, is loosely based on the great Canadian maple syrup heist that took place between 2011 and 2012. Now, the reason why I say that it’s loosely based on it is because, apart from the main conflict, i.e., gallons of maple syrup being stolen from the warehouse of the maple syrup federation, almost everything else in the series has been changed. A few issues, like the kind of problems the farmers encountered in their daily lives and how they did not like the rules and regulations set by the maple syrup federation, actually happened in real life too. But apart from that, the creators have taken utmost creative liberty, and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they have weaved a fictional story around a real-life event. So, let’s find out what actually happened during the heist and if the characters shown in the series were inspired by real-life characters.
Was Ruth’s character inspired by a real-life person?
It could be said that the idea of creating a federation was proposed in the year 1966. In 2011-2012, when the heist happened, it was said that the Federation of Maple Syrup Producers owned around 77 percent of the Canadian maple syrup reserves. However, it hasn’t been explicitly stated if Ruth Landry’s character is actually inspired by a real-life character or not; after watching the Netflix documentary Dirty Money, Season 1, Episode 5, I believe that the makers took inspiration from one of the maple syrup farmers named Angele Grenier. Well, apart from her appearance and the kind of resentment she had towards the federation, none of what we saw Ruth doing in the series happened in real life. Angele’s main issue was that the federation had exclusive selling rights, so the farmers did not have the option to sell to any other buyer apart from the federation. That meant that they had to agree to the price points set by the federation, and most of the time, they didn’t have any say in the matter. In real life, Angele started selling her own produce to an independent buyer, probably because she got a better deal there. After the federation learned about it, it levied huge fines on Angele, but she still ignored all the warnings and kept doing what she wanted. Angele went to the Quebec Court of People, where she presented her case and spoke of how the federation imposed rules and regulations that were extremely arbitrary and unfair. Angele tried really hard, but ultimately, she wasn’t able to bring about a change in the rules and regulations set by the federation. Now, the federation was supposed to be democratic in its approach, but that was not the case. Also, Angele had problems with the entire enforced quota concept where the federation told the farmers how much to produce. So basically, if the farmers wanted to produce a certain extra amount to make a profit, then they couldn’t do so. Angele, who I believe still stays in Quebec, had to pay a huge legal fee after she fought the federation for years. She had to sell her farm to cover the fees of the lawyers she hired, but she was a determined woman, and she didn’t have any qualms about what she did.
Who were the masterminds behind the heist?
Now, the federation maintains global strategic reserves of maple syrups, and as we saw in The Sticky, they stored it in various warehouses. Raymond and Richard, the father-son duo, were the masterminds of the heist. They did exactly what Remy’s friend in The Sticky was doing at a low level. So Richard and Raymond slowly stole maple syrup from the strategic reserve, and then they sold it at a higher price to an unlicensed buyer. Obviously, a hard-working farmer like Angele Grenier would get angry because, on one hand, she was not even allowed to sell her syrup to someone else, and on the other hand, these people were stealing from the farmers and then earning huge profits through it. As shown in the series, the heist was not a one-time thing, but the perpetrators stole the syrup over a period of time. They probably did that because they knew that if they stole small amounts on a regular basis, then the possibility of getting caught would be quite low. Apart from Richard and Raymond, there was a man named Etienne St-Pierre who helped them sell their products. It was a difficult job to sell illegal maple syrup, and so Richard and Raymond needed somebody on whom they could rely.
Etienne St-Pierre was the exporter who helped them sell their stolen syrup, and a man named Sebastien Justras helped them transport the stolen goods from one location to the other. Avik Caron was also one of the co-conspirators, and he was the owner of the warehouse where the syrup was stored. It is true that after siphoning the maple syrup from the containers, the perpetrators filled it with water and other liquids. We saw in the series that that was exactly what Ruth had planned to do to reduce suspicion and keep their crimes hidden. After some time, the perpetrators stopped filling the containers with water as they probably became way too cocky, and they felt that the authorities wouldn’t be able to catch them. Apart from Ruth, whose character is loosely based on Angele, I don’t think that any other characters in The Sticky are based on any real-life character. The characters of Mike and Remy are also fictional, and the entire angle of Mike being ostracized from a crime family also didn’t happen in real life. The most fascinating thing about the series was that whenever we hear the term heist, we associate it with money. However, in Quebec, maple syrup was considered to be an equally prized possession, especially the staggering price at which it was sold and the way Canadians put it to use in their daily meals, which was something unique and intriguing.
