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.
Hinton - Albertans love Canada, but many of them sure hate the federal ties that bind them. That was the underlying theme on the first stop of an Alberta task force plumbing the depths of provincial despair over relations with Ottawa. Speaker after speaker complained about the "useless" and "wasteful" national firearms registry which continues to draw vocal opposition from rural Albertans. "If Ontario wanted a gun registry they could have paid for it themselves," complained Hinton resident Jack Wilson. "It shouldn't have been rammed down our throats." Ottawa - Environmentalists and farmers are hoping to turn a patent-infringement case against Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser into a broad examination of whether plants should be patentable at all. Schmeiser's battle with biotech giant Monsanto, which lands in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, is expected to go far beyond the technical question of whether he knowingly planted Monsanto's Roundup Ready canola on his land. The core issue is whether anyone should have the right to patent a life form like a seed that has the ability to reproduce itself, said Steven Shrybman, lawyer for a coalition of non-government groups supporting Schmeiser. "Who can patent life, and who owns life, whether it's seeds, plants, animals and so on?" Schmeiser asked Monday at a news conference.
