#FIRSTLOOK: “THE PIGEON KING” ARRIVES NOVEMBER 18, 2026 ON CBC

It sounded like an unlikely way to get rich: breed pigeons and get paid for every bird you produce.

For hundreds of farmers across Canada and the U.S., the promise was hard to resist.

Big Cedar Films’ new documentary The Pigeon King premieres Wednesday, November 18 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC TV and CBC Gem, as part of The Passionate Eye, taking viewers inside the remarkable rise and collapse of Pigeon King International and the man behind it, Ontario farmer Arlan Galbraith.

Galbraith built a booming business by selling farmers breeding pairs of pigeons and promising to buy back their offspring for years. At its height, more than 800 farmers had signed on, bringing in more than $40 million worth of contracts.

Then people started asking a very simple question: Where were all the pigeons going?

“From the outside, this story seems almost unbelievable,” said Geoff Morrison, director and producer at Big Cedar Films. “But what drew us in was how human it is — farmers trying to support their livelihoods, a business built on trust, and a man who still sees the story very differently from many of the people affected by it.”

Speaking out in the documentary for the first time, Galbraith — the self-named “Pigeon King” — tells his side of the story alongside farmers, former employees, whistleblowers and journalists who became caught up in one of the strangest agricultural stories in history.

Their very different accounts take the film from family farms and barns filled with thousands of birds to the courtroom, where Galbraith chose to represent himself in an extraordinary criminal fraud trial.

The trial is brought to life through dramatic reenactments based on court transcripts featuring Mark McKinney (Kids in the Hall) as Galbraith and Kathleen Munroe (Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent) as the Crown Prosecutor.

At its centre, The Pigeon King asks a question that isn’t as simple as it first appears: Was Galbraith a con man or a true believer whose big idea spiralled out of control?

Strange and dark, The Pigeon King is a story about ambition, trust and what can happen when an opportunity sounds almost too good to be true.

View Trailer

The Pigeon King

Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 9:00 PM (9:30 NT)

 The Passionate Eye, CBC TV and CBC Gem

Produced by Big Cedar Films

ABOUT BIG CEDAR FILMS

Big Cedar Films is a creative non-fiction film & television company producing premium, character-driven documentaries and unscripted programming. Its work brings compelling people and remarkable true stories to audiences through cinematic, entertaining and thought-provoking storytelling.

Recent projects include: TIFF 2024 People’s Choice Documentary Award runner-up, Your Tomorrow (TVO), three seasons of the Canadian Screen Award-winning and Banff-nominated doc series, Farm Crime (CBC, Fifth Season), and CSA Donald Brittain Award-nominated doc, Above the Law / No Visible Trauma (CBC). The Toronto-based company was founded by producer Geoff Morrison. bigcedarfi