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 - National Chief Phil Fontaine's plan to expand and reshape the Assembly of First Nations would cost $1.7 billion, says a contentious budget proposal to the federal government. The overhaul has stirred resentment among chiefs who say Fontaine is over-stepping his role as the main conduit to Ottawa for their concerns. The sweeping plan calls for a new bureaucratic layer to be added to the vocal lobby group for more than 600 First Nations. It would also see the Ottawa-based assembly offer some services now delivered by government. The proposal is expected to heat up debate at a two-day assembly meeting in Vancouver starting Wednesday. Ottawa - The taint of the George Radwanski spending scandal has caused "collateral damage" to key government agencies, slowing work and prompting one officer of Parliament to demand an immediate audit to prove their office is clean. Federal information commissioner John Reid says the events that prompted the former privacy commissioner's resignation last June have harmed Reid's office and other federal and provincial bodies. "There's a gale-force wind out there and we're being whipped by it along with everybody else." Ottawa - The deaths of two Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan last week were the result of a deliberate act of terrorism, Russia's defence minister said Monday.
