Martin defensive over Option Canada grants
Last Updated: Saturday, January 7, 2006 | 12:00 AM ET
CBC News
Meanwhile Quebec's chief electoral officer Marcel Blanchet is launching his own investigation into Options Canada.
Martin said on Friday that the events in question took place a decade ago, and much has changed since then.
"I have demonstrated in my government that rules are to be followed and there is no exception to that," Martin said.
Paul Martin
"I would suggest what you might want to do is take a look at the accounting changes I brought in when I became prime minister."
Grants worth $4.8 million were given out in three payments to a group called Option Canada, which has since disbanded.
It was run by Claude Dauphin, who became a senior aide to then finance minister Martin.
Because the money was handed over so quickly, there were questions raised. But most were answered after an internal audit of the grants was conducted in 1997.
The department then closed the books on the group.
"The fact is, the books were closed. My understanding is that the accounting was done on a proper basis," Martin said Friday.
Liberals say allegations about Option Canada are neither new, nor relevant.
"There were questions at the time, which is why I referred it over to the auditor-general and when I never heard anything back from it, I assumed he resolved it," said Sheila Copps, who was named heritage minister in 1996.
The Heritage Department has asked for further examination by the RCMP with word that Quebec journalist Normand Lester is set to publish what is being billed as an expose on the matter.
A spokesperson for Dauphin says Dauphin knows of no wrongdoing at Option Canada.
Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe questioned the link between Dauphin and Martin.
"The year after '96, he was hired by Paul Martin as his right arm in Quebec, So, I'm asking Paul Martin to ask Mr. Dauphin to make light on what happened."
The group was a target for sovereigntists in Quebec, Martin said, because it promoted unity, which he said he would continue to defend.
Martin suggested the separatist Parti Québécois government had spent millions of dollars to promote separation, which voters in the province should also question.
