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.
Montreal - The RCMP said Wednesday it has laid the first criminal charges in a federal sponsorship scandal, charging the president of a communications firm with 18 fraud-related counts. The charges related to 18 federally sponsored events which took place between 1997 and 2002. Auditor general Sheila Fraser said last year federal bureaucrats "broke every rule in the book" in their zeal to provide government contract work - largely in Quebec. Ottawa - Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has told Paul Martin he won't support his Liberal leadership bid, in a gesture of quiet defiance against the man destined to become his boss. One close associate defended Cauchon's silence as an expression of deep commitment to Finance Minister John Manley, not as a slap against Martin. Toronto - Drivers in Atlantic Canada, Alberta and Ontario pay far more for auto insurance - as much as 500 per cent more in Toronto - than motorists in provinces with public auto insurance systems, says a new consumer study. But the insurance industry lashed out at suggestions that it gouges clients, saying the report ignores the higher benefits paid out in private-sector systems than in the four provinces with government-owned insurance - British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec.
