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.
Toronto - The Ontario Liberal government has backed down from a proposed fat tax for meals under $4 after a public outcry that was orchestrated partly by the fast food industry. The government had planned to remove the exemption on the provincial sales tax in next month's budget, a step that would have added, for example, 13 cents to the price of a large cup of coffee. Restaurants like Tim Horton's and McDonalds revved up an anti-tax campaign last week, gathering petitions with tens of thousands of signatures. Ottawa - A second Canadian man has been kidnapped in Iraq, the Foreign Affairs Department confirmed on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the department said Rifat Mohammed Rifat has been missing since April 8. Rifat, 41, was last seen leaving work at a prison west of Baghdad, where he was working for a Saudi company doing repairs. Ottawa - An aide to former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano said the minister was regularly involved in decisions made about the federal sponsorship program. In her testimony on Tuesday in front of the parliamentary committee investigating the program, Isabelle Roy contradicted what her former boss told the same committee. Roy also said there were phone calls from backbench Liberal members of Parliament, cabinet ministers and aides from riding office of Jean Chrtien.
