August 20, 2012

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National

THE REAL STORY OF CANADA’S WORST MILITARY DISASTER

DAWN HAD BROKEN by the time Ron Beal scrambled out of his landing craft to storm the beach with the Royal Regiment and attack gun positions looking west over Dieppe harbour. In the early morning sunlight, the Canadian soldiers were easy targets for the French town’s German defenders; scores lay dead and dying on the rocky beach as bullets rained mercilessly from the cliffs above. By ALEX BALLINGALL

LONDON OLYMPICS

THE VINDICATION OF MIKE SPRACKLEN

THERE’S NO EASY path to glory in coach Mike Spracklen’s world, as Rowing Canada knows to its great discomfort. There is only toil and pain, and finding the limits of your endurance. Finding those limits and continually pushing beyond, until the ultimate breaking point becomes the last stroke of the race. By KEN MACQUEEN

Interview

On introverts,learning to improvise, and why people should be nicer to one another

RUSH’S 20TH STUDIO release, Clockwork Angels, hit No. 1 in Canada in June—not bad for a steampunk, progressive rock concept album. Its story, about a young man who flees a land designed to function in perfect mechanical order, reflects the philosophy of drummer and lyricist Neil Peart.

MACLEAN'S BACK PAGES

Nexopia is an online utopia for teens

NEXOPIA IS ONE of the few social networks where a young girl still has to write, “I won’t get naked on webcam” on her profile. Girls are accustomed to inboxes full of requests to meet or swap pictures with boys and adult men. Other profiles boast come-hither urgings, like “MESSAGE ME ;). By SCAACHI KOUL

International

Retreat of the elites

A SHORT POLEMICAL book by a cable talkshow host doesn’t usually set off a worldwide conversation about the way society is organized, but Chris Hayes, the bespectacled policy wonk who hosts MSNBC’s Up With Chris Hayes, hopes to do just that with Twilight of the Elites: A merica After Meritocracy.

Newsmakers

This week, the NFL announced that the Aug. 9 game between the Green Bay Packers and the San Diego Chargers will mark an important milestone: if all goes as planned, it will be the first game with a female official. Shannon Eastin, an Arizona native, has refereed the sport for almost two decades, and making it to the NFL was her long-held dream.

BUSINESS

The Lowe down on Rona

RONA CEO ROBERT DUTTON could be forgiven for being testy with investors at the hardware retailer’s annual general meeting in May. There had been incessant gossiping over whether the company was ripe for a takeover by American rival Lowe’s, and Dutton said it was “demoralizing. By TAMSIN MCMAHON

NATIONAL

Party on the bandwagon

AT THE END of June, Jacques Duchesneau, the former Montreal police chief, sat down with William Marsden, a veteran Montreal Gazette reporter. Duchesneau had just wrapped up his testimony as the star witness at the Charbonneau commission, a public inquiry into political corruption in the province’s construction industry. By PAUL WELLS

SCANDALS

Playing dirty

MICHELLE LI AND Alex Bruce are as modest as badminton players come. And by Olympic standards, badminton is a humble sport. Yet for three glorious days last week, Wembley Arena in northwest London was their house— a cauldron of heat and commotion where even the hometown yobs, drunk before lunch, found themselves chanting “Bruce Li!” at a couple of Canadian women playing a sport with zero profile in the British Isles. By CHARLIE GILLIS

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