Maclean's

Films

A yule unspooled

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a remake of the 1956 classic, is the ultimate urban horror story—a nightmare vision of automatons and neon. The possessed population of San Francisco, whose bodies are being taken over by a force from outer space through pods that reproduce sticky, embryonic duplicates of them, walk with shoulders slumped, their emotions rendered inert. By Lawrence O’Toole10 min

36

Sports

Four horsemen on the downhill staircase

They’re known in the European press as the “Canadian Kamikazes” or “Crazy Canucks.” After the first World Cup ski race of the year, they’re the kings of the mountain. In Schladming, Austria, the second weekend of December, the Canadian Men’s downhill ski team pulled off its long-planned blitzkrieg of European rivals. By Andy Shaw9 min

32

Cover Story

Slugging it out for No. 1

Donald McGiverin’s soul was forged in a department store, halfway down the middle aisle between sporting goods and hardware. That is why the illusion of modesty is so complete: his is the humility of someone just getting acquainted with his own success. By Ian Brown9 min

40

Fashion

The glitter is the message

When Sheila Turner of Toronto, an Air Canada purser, went looking for a Christmas present this year for her husband Art, an industrial-arts teacher (sheet metal, auto mechanics), she skipped the recommended male gifts: no automatic pants’ presser, no electric saws, not even a glance at the cable-knit Irish wool sweaters. By Barbara Amiel7 min

30

People

Three years ago the Canadian writing team of Aubrey Tadman, 45, and Garry Ferrier, 41, took off for Hollywood, forsaking Wayne and Shuster, Anne Murray and the King of Kensington for their American network counterparts Donny and Marie, Rhoda and Dick Van Dyke. By Jane O'Hara5 min

When money talks: the silent side of pacifism

20

Canadian News

When money talks: the silent side of pacifism

Most Canadians long ago forgot that income tax was introduced in 1917 as a temporary measure to finance the First World War. The country’s pacifist Hutterites have a longer memory. The fundamentalist, communalist, Christian farmers have neither forgotten the origins of income tax nor become reconciled, as they put it, to “appearing before our creator with bloody hands.” By Suzanne Zwarun5 min

26

World News

The bloody trail behind Jonestown

It is more than four weeks since the horrors of Jonestown burst upon a shocked world. In that time, intensive investigations on three continents have begun to sort out fact from fiction and to piece together an increasingly accurate picture of the horrific ending of the Peoples Temple cult. By William Lowther4 min

6

Frontlines

The man who loved the ‘wrong’ art

George Costakis was remembering the days when he worked at the Canadian embassy in Moscow and, on his own, collected modern Soviet paintings when people were using them to board up drafty windows. “You know, it was like fishing in a lake and all around are meat eaters. By Rita Christopher4 min

18

Canadian News

Requiem for a leader’s happier days

The episode was messy and embarrassing but, last week, Liberal leader Claude Ryan finally persuaded one of his reluctant back-benchers to quit the national assembly and give him an urgently needed chance to bathe in the legislative chamber’s television lighting. By David Thomas4 min

24

The game they play for deadly stakes

President Jimmy Carter, frustrated and furious over the apparent collapse of his Middle East peace plans, will make a major effort for success in another area this week—agreement on a strategic arms limitation treaty with the Soviet Union. By William Lowther4 min