February 3, 1997

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CANADA

Young and dangerous

For 21 years, Sister Lesley Sacouman has been walking the same one-block stretch in north-central Winnipeg. The daily trek down Ross Avenue, from her home to Rossbrook House—a refuge for street kids she helped establish in 1976—has given the Roman Catholic nun an unfolding view of a neighborhood in social decay. By DALE EISLER7 min

Education

Public school shakeup

To some, it heralded a decisive victory for fiscal sensibility and grassroots democracy. To others, it was a crushing defeat. But when Ontario Education Minister John Snobelen announced his plans to reduce the number of school boards in the province to 66 from 168 within the year, to slash the salaries of trustees by up to 90 per cent, and to give the province—rather than boards—the power to collect and spend education tax dollars, those on all sides agreed on one thing: Ontario, home to roughly one-third of the country’s students, has cast its lot with a revolution that is transforming Canadian public education. By VICTOR DWYER7 min

Business

Rumble in the jungle

On Sept. 17 at 7:55 a.m., former U.S. president George Bush landed in the sleepy town of Elko, Nev., on a luxe Gulfstream jet owned by Barrick Gold Corp. of Toronto. The residents of Elko (population 35,000), who had only recently welcomed their first Wal-Mart and their second McDonald’s, had never seen anything like it. By JENNIFER WELLS7 min

Canada

Steady as she goes

So, Greg Mills, this is your chance to play finance minister. The federal deficit is going down faster than expected: what should Ottawa do with the unexpected windfall? Mills, 38, is torn between options, his pent-up frustration with politicians seeping into each selection. By MARY JANIGAN6 min

Opera

New twists on old songs

The first act of the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict concludes with a scene that is sheer perfection. On the night before her wedding, Héro (soprano Nancy Allen Lundy) and her companion Ursule (mezzo-soprano Anita Krause) sing the opera’s famous nocturne, a sensuous, melancholy duet in which Héro bids adieu to her girlhood and confronts the uncertainty ahead. By John Bemrose6 min

WORLD

A new 'opening'

El Presidente was clearly in an expansive mood when he showed up unexpectedly for lunch at the Canadian ambassador’s residence in Havana last week. Fidel Castro, Cuba’s leader-forlife, held forth on everything from cooking and gardening to Canadian unity and the American embargo of his country. By ANDREW PHILLIPS5 min