April 27, 1998

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World/SPECIAL REPORT

A fractured dream

Gabriel Ben Yitzhak and Jamil Abu Heykal share an uneasy existence on a hilltop overlooking ancient Hebron, a town that was already old when Abraham arrived more than 35 centuries ago. The Jewish patriarch is, in religious tradition if not irrefutable fact, buried near the foot of the hill. By BARRY CAME16 min

The Nation’s Business

Traders: A TV drama too close for comfort

As Canada more and more adopts the Money Culture, Bay Street becomes less a place than a metaphor. Bay Street—really a 20-block district of skyscrapers bounded by Toronto’s University, Victoria, Queen and Front streets—not only helps determine the price of money in this country, but to a surprising and disturbing degree, its ethical standards—or the lack of them. By Peter C. Newman4 min

Canada/COVER

Boom, bust and housing

Calgary realtor Rudy Spiess has some sage advice for prospective buyers these days: remember your chequebook. In the country’s busiest markets, hungry buyers are prowling the streets in search of real estate, and fussbudgets or lollygaggers need not apply. By JOHN SCHOFIELD13 min

COLUMNS

Why Black will NOT start a new Toronto paper

This is called, in the trade, drinking your own bathwater. No one in the country cares if Conrad Black actually starts his national newspaper, as he advertises, in the fall—no one but other newspaper scribblers. Mrs. Bloggs in Moose Jaw does not toss and turn on her pillow over Conrad’s cockamamie scheme, which will prove him a genius once again—or only the second failure in his life. By Allan Fotheringham4 min

Health

Death from side-effects

In 1960, Nadia Niechoda was 31, pregnant and looking forward to a good life. Then, her doctor in Burnaby, B.C., found she had high blood pressure, and she has spent the past 38 years on prescription medication. In the early 1980s, Niechoda, now 69 and a retired bookkeeper and translator, developed severe gout that disfigured her feet so badly she could barely walk, carpal tunnel syndrome that prevented her from lifting so much as a pot, a painfully sensitive scalp, and a throat so sore the pain would wake her at night. By DANYLO HAEWALESHKA4 min

COVER

When the bubble pops

Those and more than 400 homes like them are catalogued in the Multiple Listing Service book of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. All million-dollar-plus, all in the prestigious west side of Vancouver. Four years ago, they would have sold within days or, at worst, months. By JENNIFER HUNTER4 min

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