This Magazine articles from November 1997

This Magazine archives from November 1997

Armed and dangerous (Canadian arms sales).
November 1, 1997... Estimated Canadian military sales (domestic and international): $3 billion Canada's rank among world arms exporters: as low as 6, as high as 12 What we are exporting around the world: body armour to China; military aircraft to...

How to get ahead in advertising.
November 1, 1997... WHEN MCMASTER STUDENTS went back to school this fall they were greeted by big blue-and-yellow signs and posters, miniature frisbees and special "student survival kits" plastered with the logo STUDENT POWER. A challenge to take up the...

We're here, we're queer, we're trustworthy.
November 1, 1997... k.d. lang FOR PRIME Minister? While researching his book, On the Fringe, University of Toronto Professor David Rayside discovered that openly gay politicians may now enjoy an advantage in the eyes of voters, many of whom regard being out...

Stalemate: "holey war" May-June 1997 (unions and Tim Hortons).
November 1, 1997... The battle between seven New Brunswick Tim Hortons workers and their boss has ended in a stalemate. Last January, Dale Ritchie--then owner of five Saint John outlets--fired seven employees. He claimed they were stealing from him; the workers...

Some like it fast (Bill C-220).
November 1, 1997... C-220, the so-called Son of Sam bill that penalizes criminals who write about their crime, has fast-tracked it to third reading in the Senate. A slight change in the bill's wording so that it now applies to writing that is "substantially" based...

Give 'em the gears.
November 1, 1997... IT'S FRIDAY RUSH HOUR IN Toronto. Traffic is backed up for blocks. A crowd of 70 cyclists, 200 feet deep, crawls southward on Yonge Street, the city's busiest artery. A ragged band of bike couriers, anarchists, lefties and commuters leaves...

Finns and the art of moped maintenace.
November 1, 1997... OUR ARRIVAL AT MATTI'S farmhouse in the tiny village of Sarkikyla marks a homecoming for my partner's grandmother, who'd left Finland 70 years before. We're here to celebrate the anniversary of her emigration. Matti, her cousin, will be our...

Whole world in their hands (APEC, FTAA, MAI).
November 1, 1997... STARTLED BY THE FREE FLOW of goods and investments across national borders, the hemisphere and the globe? Alarmed at the ever-increasing power of transnational corporations? You should be. Canada is eagerly (and quietly) pursuing a number of...

Girl power: from Princess Di to Oprah Winfrey, the mavens of pop culture pack a powerful punch on the international stage ... why don't we elect them.
November 1, 1997... A FEW MONTHS BEFORE her death, Princess Diana--trailing her usual retinue of photographers, journalists and television cameras--visited a land mine field in Angola. Just as she intended, the cameras dutifully recording her casual denim ensemble...

Higher authority: under Canada's new drug law, anyone with a pot plant and a bank of grow lights could have their home taken away.
November 1, 1997... A LOCAL CHAMBER OF Commerce brochure describes the Saanich Peninsula, lying near Victoria on Vancouver Island, as a "gentle place," an area that offers "nothing dramatic." The brochure goes on to explain that "the name `Saanich' comes from the...

Home sweet home (Toronto).
November 1, 1997... In a province where the Ministry of Housing claims not to be in the business of serving the homeless, in a city where every night 4,000 people are forced to seek emergency shelter, there is a major crisis. This photo essay--a chronicle of...

All my relations ... battling history at Kanehsatake.
November 1, 1997... The old man stands by the edge of the woods, at the far end of the cornfield behind my sister's house. He wears a long, flowing shirt and a kastowah, a Mohawk headdress. It's made of a brimless cap circled by a flurry of small, curled white...

Paradise lost ... Sombrio was a model of community living.
November 1, 1997... LIKE the sea lions in their caves near the rocky peninsula where the surf breaks, Steve Johnson lives between the rain forest and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, on Sombrio Beach. He has a cedar-shake cabin, a workshop with a leaded-glass window, a...

Forgive us our trespasses.
November 1, 1997... Squatting goes on all the time in Canada's biggest cities and in remote rural locations. But do squatters actually have rights? There's a lot of legal mumbo jumbo--but the answer is a highly qualified yes. In most of the country, land...

Border crossings: like 400,000 other young Serbs, Dragan Todorovic fled the former Yugoslavia for another chance in a new country.
November 1, 1997... Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair. --T. S. Eliot I give Bojan a call at 11 in the evening. We chat a little and I say, "It seems that the weather tonight will be fine. Lucky you, you...

Hair.
November 1, 1997... I Mahogany Ross had sof'head.Y'KNOW? Too tender to comb? Too tender to just let anyone put their hands all up in her mess'a kinky, soft naps. She saw stars when she wrapped her hair in scarves. Howled like a banshii the first time her...

Graduate (George Bush).
November 1, 1997... EVER WONDER WHAT KIND of thinking is being promoted at Canadian universities these days? Well, check this one out. In an apparent fit of selective amnesia, the University of Toronto has found George Bush worthy of an honorary degree to be...