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.
Vancouver - A black bear cub raided a North Vancouver kitchen, gobbling a blackberry pie intended for a dinner party. Lynn and James Hill were expecting their guests Sunday night, when the young bear apparently walked right into the couple's kitchen, attracted by the smell of the freshly baked pie. The Hills eventually managed to get rid of the raider using bear spray left over from their son's fieldwork in Alaska. They later realized it had also eaten a block of butter, including its foil, and chewed on more than a dozen apples, oranges, pears and avocados. The cub, one of six orphans in the area was probably looking for food because their natural foods had ripened early and were depleted. Halifax - A rescue effort was necessary off the west coast of Ireland after a Canadian military submarine with 57 people on board issued a distress call Tuesday. Military officials said a fire broke out on HMCS Chicoutimi about 425 kilometres west of Ireland, but was extinguished. Ottawa - The federal government can't meet its own demands for bilingual employees because the language requirements are too high, documents obtained by the CBC show. About 40 per cent of federal public service jobs are classified as bilingual. Statistics from the Public Service Commission show that about half of those who take the oral tests necessary for the jobs are failing them.
