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.
Ottawa - The Liberal government will introduce legislation to legalize same-sex marriage when Parliament resumes sitting in January, Prime Minister Paul Martin said Thursday. In an opinion released earlier in the day, nine Supreme Court judges asked to review draft legislation extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians said such a move would be constitutional. That legal opinion clears the way for the Liberal government to introduce a bill early in the new year. Liberal MPs will be free to vote their conscience on the bill, but cabinet ministers will be required to vote in favour of it, said Martin. Ottawa - Heavy drinkers or drug users are much more likely than teetotalers to become depressed, a Statistics Canada study suggests. The report, released Thursday, indicates that adult Canadians who rely on illicit drugs are more than six times as likely to suffer through a major depressive episode than those who never touch them. More than a quarter ? 26 per cent ? of Canadians who seemed dependent on drugs in 2002 struggled with depression, compared to only four per cent of abstainers, the Alcohol and Illicit Drug Dependence report suggests. Halifax - Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm has confirmed that his government plans to revive coal mining in Cape Breton, three years after the island's last mine shut down. The province will call for proposals to reopen the Donkin Mine.
