Bloc and Liberals spar over Option Canada grants
Last Updated: Saturday, January 7, 2006 | 11:00 PM ET
CBC News
But the allegations of misspent federal funds at Option Canada drew spirited rebuttals on Saturday from the former head of the group and prominent Liberals, including Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew.
Option Canada received nearly $5 million in grants from Ottawa before the referendum on separation. Past government audits weren't able to account for about $300,000 of the funds.
Paul Martin and his Liberals said the audits showed no sign of any wrongdoing.
Liberal Leader Paul Martin, in Montreal on Saturday, accuses the sovereigntists of trying to create controversy out of long-resolved matter.
- FROM JAN. 6, 2005: Martin defensive over Option Canada grants
But Duceppe told reporters on Saturday that Martin said the same thing before the sponsorship scandal broke.
"They were saying that about the ad scam, so they're saying that now," Duceppe said.
"It's the same kind of attitude, denying the facts, trying to get away from the facts. I mean, this is typical of the Liberals. Period."
The sovereigntists have for years accused the federal government of using the group to get around rules on referendum funding.
The Liberals in turn accuse the sovereigntists of trying to score political points by trying to create a controversy out of something they say was resolved years ago.
However, the federal department that gave out the funding, Heritage Canada, has asked the RCMP to further examine the grant. It made the move as a Quebec journalist's book raising fresh allegations of misspent federal funds at Option Canada was set to be released Monday – just before the federal leaders' debate.
Former head of group says he had no control over how funds were spent
Option Canada – which formed before the referendum and has since been disbanded – was run by Claude Dauphin. Dauphin went on to work from 1997 to 2001 as the top Quebec adviser to Martin, who was then federal finance minister.
Duceppe has suggested Option Canada, under Dauphin, may have used some of the funds to pay for a huge federalist rally in Montreal just before the "no" side won the 1995 vote by a razor-thin margin.
Dauphin rejected the allegations on Saturday. He said that when he was head of Option Canada, he was in charge of raising funds not spending them and had no control over the group's bank accounts.
"I was just the honorary head," Dauphin told CBC News in French on Saturday.
"I signed no cheques and knew of no wrongdoing," said Dauphin, who now works as a senior bureaucrat with the City of Montreal.
Pettigrew releases bill to counter suggestions that Option Canada paid him
Pettigrew, who is fighting a tough battle against the Bloc in his Montreal riding, took the unusual step of releasing a bill from a decade earlier on Saturday.
The Liberal MP had heard suggestions that Normand Lester's book, The Secrets of Option Canada, alleges he received $12,000 from Option Canada for consulting work in 1995.
Pettigrew, who was then a private consultant on national unity and economic issues, said he had a contract with the Canadian Unity Council, which is the organization he billed.
It was the parent group for Option Canada, but Pettigrew said he didn't know that back in 1995.
"The only money that I have received, that they referred to, is this bill here and the bill is very clearly addressed to the Council of Canadian Unity," Pettigrew told reporters outside his campaign office.
"They had been my clients. I had never heard about Option Canada at that time."
He said he had many clients at the time, but never had any contact with Option Canada.
