Option Canada

Option Canada was a Montreal-based lobby group established some eight weeks before the voting day of the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty. According to registration papers filed with both the Canadian and Quebec governments, the private group was incorporated by executives of the Canadian Unity Council on September 7, 1995. The group was disbanded soon after the referendum was over.

At the time of its operations, the group was composed of businessmen and political organizers of three federalist political parties - the Liberal Party of Canada, the Quebec Liberal Party and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. The president of Option Canada was Claude Dauphin, an aide to Paul Martin, at the time Canadian minister of finance.

Option Canada first caught media attention in Quebec when the group created the Committee to Register Voters Outside Quebec in order to help citizens who had left Quebec in the two years before the referendum vote register on the electoral list of the province. Since 1989, a clause of the Quebec electoral law allows for ex-residents of Quebec to signal their intention of returning to Quebec and vote by mail. The Committee, which operated during the time of the referendum campaign, handed-out pamphlets which included the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec form to fill out in order to be added to the list of voters. The pamphlet also gave out a toll-free number as contact information which was the same number as the one used by the Canadian Unity Council.

After the referendum, the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec, Pierre F. Côté, filed 20 criminal charges of illegal expenditures and opened an inquiry on Option Canada. However, following a ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada issued on October 17, 1997, (see Libman vs. Quebec-Attorney General) some sections of Quebec's referendum law were judged unconstitutional. Quebec's Chief Electoral Officer consequently had to interrupt the conduct of his inquiry and drop the charges.

Continued investigation by former Radio-Canada journalist Normand Lester lead the revelation of a $4.8-million grant awarded to Option Canada by Heritage Canada.

In early January 2006, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had launched an inquiry on Option Canada at the request of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The Secrets of Option Canada, a book co-authored by Normand Lester and historian Robin Philpot, is set be released in mid-January.