Laurentians | Wild clearcut in the middle of the night

(Val-des-Lacs) A company linked to the Mafia would have passed a tree to the residents of Val-des-Lacs, in the Laurentians, during the holiday season. According to the municipality, despite a formal ban, the company would have taken advantage of the night to carry out a wild clearcut in the small town which defines itself as “the place par excellence for lovers of nature in its purest form. “.

Vincent Larouche
Press

“It’s disgusting, very, very sad. We have to replant all these trees, we have a lot of work ahead of us, it will cost a fortune, repair all this damage, ”said Mayor Paul Kushner with a sigh, pointing to the old woodlot.

A strong smell of freshly cut wood is still perceptible on the ground, at the corner of Montée Lajeunesse and Chemin de Val-des-Lacs, very close to Lac à Carl. Logs were thrown over a stream to make a bridge and tracks of caterpillars deep in the ground testify to the passage of heavy machinery. An excavator is parked in front of stacked logs.

According to the municipality, the owners applied for a permit in December for the cutting of a few trees, and signed a by-law specifically prohibiting clear cutting, as well as cutting in the wetland and near the creek that are part of the property. “They were supposed to cut down only the dead trees, to regenerate the forest, but they clear cut! All the animals are gone, ”protests the mayor.

Citizen demonstration

Work began on the evening of December 17, the day of the announced closure of municipal offices. According to several neighbors, the massive logging continued for at least two nights. At the Le Saint-Agricole grocery store, a cooperative that remains the only food store in Val-des-Lacs, customers only talked about that.

“They were out of the woods for three days, so that was the only topic of conversation. And we went to demonstrate, ”says Ginette Lynch, coordinator of the cooperative.

The demonstration did not cause the workers at work in the woods to flinch. “They were taking pictures of our cars. They said that they had all the necessary permits, but I said that it could not be, it is impossible to cut in a bog, a wetland, around a stream ”, says Mr.^me Lynch.

“When the police came, they stopped, but they did it again right after the officers left, before they even turned the corner,” she says.

The City claims to have ordered the immediate halt of the cut on December 19, since it was not done in the rules of the art. The order was repeated during a meeting with the owners at the town hall on December 20, according to the municipality.

But work would have resumed immediately after.

The permit was therefore revoked. On the evening of December 23, the City obtained an injunction from the Superior Court to force a stoppage of work. A neighbor, who asked not to be named, provided Press a video showing that until the end of the afternoon, on December 23, workers continued to remove large loads of timber.

Close to the mafia godfather

It was in the summer of 2020 that a company from outside the region purchased approximately 16 hectares of woodland and peat bog.

The new buyer was a numbered company registered in the name of Johanne Brien, spouse of Frank Martorana, a man with a long criminal record who was a sidekick of the late Mafia godfather Vito Rizzuto. In two recent civil cases brought to court, the couple admitted that Frank Martorana looked after the business, negotiated on his behalf and could engage him financially, although his name does not appear in official documentation.

Mr. Martorana, 63, has previously been convicted of car theft, concealment conspiracy, tax evasion and intimidation. He was also pinned twice for smuggling odometers in his used vehicle business. His last conviction, in 2012, earned him three years in prison for having moved back hundreds of odometers, 100,000 km on average, according to the investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Parole Board of Canada highlighted the man’s connection to the Mafia when he was released in 2014, which he denied.

Press has already revealed how in 2001, according to the RCMP, an Ontario businessman who owed Martorana money was summoned to Montreal to meet with godfather Vito Rizzuto, his son Nick and another Mafia heavyweight, in order to resolve the situation. That same year, two men were arrested and charged with a plot to kill Vito Rizzuto and kidnap Frank Martorana at the same time.

Four years later, in 2005, Frank Martorana was abducted from a barber shop. When the police arrived at the scene, there was so much blood that they believed he had been shot and wounded. A wanted notice was issued to the public, but Martorana finally reappeared a few days later, her face swollen. He had refused to file a complaint.

The couple are now giving away a large waterfront estate in Oka as their address, which is for sale at a cost of $ 10.8 million. The ad speaks of a “private estate worthy of the great Hollywood films”.

Neither Mr. Martorana nor his spouse responded to an interview request sent through their lawyer. They didn’t want to say what the purpose of cutting the trees was.

Mayor Kushner now wants to have municipal bylaws changed to avoid this kind of situation. But for the field of Frank Martorana, it is too late.

“The damage is done”, he launched in a message to the citizens.