This Magazine articles from July 1997

This Magazine archives from July 1997

Youth and work.
July 1, 1997... Canadian youth population (ages 15 to 24): 4,027,608 Official youth unemployment rate: 17 per cent Youth unemployment rate including those who have given up looking for work: 28 per cent Estimated annual cost of youth unemployment...

Milking Schwartzenegger (re Megacity opposition).
July 1, 1997... As a general rule, successful politicians kill for the chance to associate with Hollywood's macho elite. If the brief is to look tough and sit tall in the saddle, there's nothing like a little movie muscle to complete the picture. You might...

It's got a groovy beat and I can shop to it!
July 1, 1997... From the moment science discovered a link between music and a person's mood, you had to know that business would find a way to exploit it--using tunes to make us eat faster, shop harder, stay longer or leave sooner. Local merchants at the...

Noam Chomsky on the monopoly game.
July 1, 1997... Institute professor of linguistics and philosophy at MIT, Noam Chomsky is the author of over 70 books, including, most recently, Perspectives on Power (1997). This excerpt is from a recent interview with Gerry McCarthy. TM: Conrad Black's...

Back at Black: when Conrad Black swallowed their hometown paper, Pelham locals fired up the presses (The Voice of Pelham).
July 1, 1997... In Pelham, Ontario, press baron Conrad Black is eyeing a small group of people who threaten a tiny part of his media empire. Glaring down from a homemade poster tacked to the wood-panelled wall of Carolyn Mullin's home, Black grumbles: "I want...

Last resort (sex tourism, Cuba).
July 1, 1997... Tall and thin with a small, hard potbelly, Don made himself our unofficial tour guide en route to the hotel near Santiago de Cuba. Recently retired from 30 years on the line at the Oakville Windstar plant, he'd been to Cuba seven times in the...

Out of commission: when Ottawa decided to ignore the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
July 1, 1997... In 1991, the Progressive Conservative government, to its everlasting credit--it is actually possible to say something good about Brian Mulroney--appointed a Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples with strong representation from aboriginal...

Open sesame: the Access to Information Act was supposed to make Ottawa an open book.
July 1, 1997... It's an experience guaranteed to brighten any researcher's day. A plain envelope arrives out of nowhere and waits quietly in my mail-box. I scan it for identifying marks. It seems unusually warm and has the soft, therapeutic texture of friendly...

Riot: inside the Drumheller prison riot.
July 1, 1997... On January 2, 1997, at around 9:15 p.m., Roly stopped by my cell door to tell me there might be a problem. I'd known him for seven years. He's my workout partner and we're tight. "What kind of problem?" I asked. "Guards got into it...

Fight at Auburn High ... black students say it's about the racism and isolation they face every day.
July 1, 1997... BY LATE AFTERNOON, rumours had already spread about the fight in the boys' washroom. Things were moving fast--first into the hallway, then spilling outside toward the student parking lot. What began with a black guy and a white guy squaring...

Storyteller: he's slept in cars, parks and squats ... and he collects stories.
July 1, 1997... Shaykh Abu Sai'd never saved any money or even kept it overnight--therefore, whenever some patron donated a heavy purse to his hospice, the dervishes celebrated with a gourmet feast, and on other days, all went hungry. The point was to enjoy...

Red alert ... Dalton Camp rails against "rapacious capitalism" and he is the most savage, self-assured critic of neoconservatism Canada has ever seen.
July 1, 1997... IT WAS, IN ITS OWN way, a very modern conservative moment. Last spring, Dalton Camp was attending an annual Royal Military College event where the college hands out an award to the best graduating cadet. After the service, Peter...

Descancos.
July 1, 1997... Author's note: this piece was inspired by a chapter in Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book Women Who Run With the Wolves. I have taken the liberty of changing the spelling of the word descansos into its Portuguese spelling: descancos. A white...

Holiday Inn Pembroke.
July 1, 1997... The only time I ever saw you completely out of control; smile cut as deep as your fear of strange, open spaces, real hatred, ferocity and contempt: the mistake you knew I was making, that I would make again. Twenty-three was not wise enough,...