“The 1995 referendum proves beyond any doubt that Canada, a country that emerged from the British Empire, does not deserve its reputation as a democratic country. On October 30, 1995, some 54,000 votes made the difference between YES and NO. If the supporters of the NO, and especially, the federal state and Canadians outside Quebec had not cheated, the YES would have won.
• Read also: Investigation of the 1995 referendum: Legault wants “all possible information” to be made public
• Read also: Electoral fraud in the 1995 referendum: the PQ wants to make public documents kept secret
This is the conclusion reached by Robin Philpot in his shocking book The Stolen Referendum. It was in 2005. I totally agree with this conclusion, the referendum was stolen.
From this investigation, Normand Lester and Robin Philpot published in 2006 the book The secrets of Option Canada which documented the malfeasance of Option Canada and other firms during the 1995 referendum.
Creation of the Grenier Commission
Following the reactions of the population to the publication of this second shocking book, the Grenier commission was launched a few days later in January 2006 by the Chief Electoral Officer to carry out an investigation into all the facts contained and described in Philpot and Lester’s book.
know the truth
However, this week, PSPP takes on its account the request repeated in the last years of Lester and Philpot so that are made public 1400 documents having been deposited at the Grenier commission. Commission held behind closed doors to precisely put the lid on the pot.
According to PSPP: “We know that there was a fraud, a circumvention to spend much more than the yes camp through all kinds of occult NPOs, but we do not know the extent of these schemes.”
Obtaining the classified documents of the Grenier commission will allow Quebecers, as the Gomery commission which shed light on the sponsorship scandal, will allow Quebecers to understand the fraudulent schemes of the federalists of the NO camp. This will also ensure that this type of fraud never happens again. It is a question of democracy.
This will not change history, but will allow Quebecers to understand how the referendum was played, lost by 49.4%.
How we shamelessly engineered the destiny of a people who were democratically seeking emancipation.