Option Canada was a Montreal-based lobby group established by the Canadian Unity Council (CUC) some eight weeks before the voting day of the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty.
[citation needed] The Committee, which operated during the time of the referendum campaign, handed-out pamphlets which included the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec form to be added to the list of voters.
[citation needed] After the referendum, the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec, Pierre F. Côté, filed 20 criminal charges of illegal expenditures and opened an inquiry into Option Canada.
[citation needed] In January 2006, acting on a tip, pro-sovereigntist journalists Normand Lester and Robin Philpot obtained bins of ledgers and cheque stubs which they alleged to be proof of a multi-million dollar transfer from the federal Department of Canadian Heritage through Option Canada to the "No" movement.
The report said that Option Canada and the Canadian Unity Council (CUC) spent $539,000 from the federal Heritage Department to illegally support the "No" campaign during the 1995 Quebec Referendum.
[citation needed] In Ottawa, Labour and Quebec Economic Development Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn defended Michelle D'Auray, who Grenier concluded spent $8,583 of Option Canada funds that should have been submitted for approval.