The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Winnipeg - Another war of words between Ottawa and the provinces started Saturday after federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh suggested the provinces will be to blame if nursing and doctor shortages are not fixed within a few years. The new national health accord, under which the federal government has agreed to pump an extra $41-billion over 10 years into health care, will be enough to prevent any shortages as long as the money is spent wisely by the provinces, Dosanjh told a convention of federal Liberals. Huntsville, Ontario - Ontario students will have to stay in school until they're 18, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Saturday. New legislation will force the province's youth to keep learning either in a classroom, or at an apprenticeship or a job placement program until they're 18, he added. "No longer will young people be able to walk out at age 16," McGuinty said in a speech at a Liberal policy conference. Toronto - Tougher punishments have been handed down to an Ontario couple who regularly beat their two sons and kept them locked in cages for years. The mother is now sentenced to five years in prison, while the father is sentenced to four. The boys, now 17 and 18, were physically abused, kept in diapers, and locked in makeshift cages over a period of 13 years after their adoption. The parents pleaded guilty in January to two counts each of assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and "failing to provide the necessaries of life."
