The Coalition for Alternative Therapy (CAT) was founded by Dr Victor Triffon, his wife, Betty Triffon, and Vancouver lawyer, Thomas Murphy as an federally incorporated organization on Dec 10, 1979. In 1980, the Coalition, CAT, published its first newsletter named Option Magazine, of which Michael Lubin was the first editor.

The objects of the organization were:
1. To exert stength and influence on all levels
of government so that there may be
established and maintained freedom of
health and practices throughout Canada.

2. To support the principle of freedom of
choice on health matters, and the right of
all Canadians to the therapists and
therapies of their own choice.

3. To work for beneficial and needed health
legislation and oppose all legislation
detrimental to the health interests of the
people of Canada.

Some of the lectures hosted in 1983 included Dr Satya Brown on Nutrition & Heart Disease; Dr Malcolm Cass on Health, Harmony and Homeostasis; Dr Pieter Taams on Conventional Medicine vs Natural Healing; and Dr P Allen on Past Present and Future Surgical Treatment of Heart Disease; Dr Brian Willoughby on AIDS; and Lucille Gilles on Abuse Today - Explosion Tomorrow.

The Directors of HANS were Mike Bryan, Lorna Hancock, Olive Balabanov, Betty Stark, Inez Birtch, Alan Martin, Croft Woodruff, Vi Pilar, Molly Phillips, Inge Hanle, and Errol Abramson.

When HANS Health Action Network Society became an official non-profit, charitable organization in 1984, Option magazine and newsletter continued on, under the new organization.