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.
Vernon, B.C. - The mayor of Vernon B.C. is calling for a public inquiry into the national parole system following the discovery that half the murders in his community may be linked to a single halfway house. Corrections Canada announced it will launch an internal investigation after Eric Fish, a convicted murderer on parole, was charged with the recent murder of 75-year-old Bill Abramenko. Documents showed that before releasing Fish, the National Parole Board ruled he was "high-risk to violently re-offend." Ottawa - Documents have been produced at the sponsorship inquiry that show federal officials knew there were major irregularities with the program long before Auditor General Sheila Fraser released her report earlier this year. In an e-mail dated June 1999, a Treasury Board official complained to the Department of Public Works about the work of Groupaction, one of the Quebec advertising agencies at the centre of the sponsorship scandal. "Not only do they charge exorbitant amounts for work they do not perform, but the work they do perform is at best, incompetent." Quebec City - Welfare recipients in Quebec who live with their parents will have monthly cheques cut by as much as $100. The government says it can save $44 million a year by trimming welfare payments to young, able-bodied adults still living at home, and whose parents both work.
