March 10, 1980

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SQUEEZING THE MIDDLE CLASS

Joe Kowal, a Winnipeg ambulance driver, and his librarian wife, Daphne, are afraid they’re losing the race with the cost of living. They’re not an extravagant pair; they do enjoy the odd movie, or an ordered-in pizza while watching M*A*S*H, but that’s about it. By Val Ross12 min

Profile

Explorer-poet of the last frontier

Right the ice now by Fred the Magdalen Bruemmer Islands is out on in the Gulf of St. Lawrence photographing harp seals. It’s his 14th trip, but he’ll stay two or three weeks because, he says, “I enjoy their beauty.” Yet he already has if),000 pictures of the beasts, has written a dozen articles on them and, in 1977, published a book, The By Ernest Hillen9 min

People

The frizzed hair, skinny ties and hornrimmed glasses of the Annie Hall look spawned by Diane Keaton in 1977 have fallen by the fashion wayside. What will replace them? Well, Keaton was recently spotted in New York sporting a new and utterly made-for-trending look: straight hair, baggy jeans, a bold plaid lumberjack jacket with padded shoulders and red high-heeled shoes that would make Minnie Mouse jump for joy. By Marsha Boulton6 min

This Canada

A village dying for faith and pride

The church rises from the hillside, its twin towers two great peaks, its Gothic steeple an Everest-like summit. From the stone steps there is an unobstructed view of the countryside, cavernous valleys, rolling hills, piney forests, distant lakes. By Ken Becker6 min

Letters

If it’s Tuesday this is Kansas

While you were reporting on Ralph Nader’s criticisms of the Law School Admissions Test and other tests {Multiple-Choice Anxiety ,Feb. 4), you might well have considered whether Canadians don’t have even more reason for suspicion of them than Americans do.

World

No longer playing Robin Hood

For years they were best known for their Robin Hood exploits—robbing pro-government storekeepers and giving the proceeds to the neighbors. But last week Colombian M-19 guerrillas—who six years ago stole the sword of Simon Bolivar the liberator* and pledged war on “the exploiters of the people”—exploded on the international scene with a coup as ruthless as any outlaw act in history. By William Lowther, Timothy Ross6 min

Monitoring workers, transmitting paranoia

42d

Labor

Monitoring workers, transmitting paranoia

There was a time when a Bell operator, sitting at her switchboard at the local exchange, could keep track of most of the gossip in a small town—controlling in her own little way the electronic eavesdropping gadgetry of the day. But now it seems the headset is on the other ear. By Larry Black5 min

18d

Canada

The Axatollah rides again

It was as if the Grits had never left power. When a senior Trudeau aide strode in to reclaim the government office he had vacated last year to Clark economist Jim Gillies, he was startled and disappointed to find nothing had changed since May: the same dingy pictures on the wall, the same in-out boxes on the desk still bearing his name. By John Hay5 min

Q&A: Ellen Burka

Discipline on the rocks

The skaters' T-shirts read BURKA’S BELLES or BURRA’S BOYS, but down On the ice Ellen Burka establishes domination over the heads and blades of Canada's elite corps of amateur skaters as no mere heart-level declaration can do. “Finish it, finish it, "commands the veteran coach, as one frustrated figure skater threatens to quit mid-solo after his umpteenth spill.

Podium_

The issue is annihilation

Like most parents, we’re helping our 10-year-old, Sheila, prepare for the future. French immersion classes by day, ballet and piano lessons each week, and a fair share of parental love and concern. Is anything missing? Just one—a decent chance for her to live beyond her teens. By Murray Thomson4 min

44b

Show Business

Germ fanfare

An unusual Japanese virus is incubating in the tiny town of Kleinburg, Ontario, but this one isn’t a variation of the Hong Kong flu and it won’t leave anyone sniffling. This Virus is a $15-million Japanese feature film that is going to give the Canadian film industry a booster shot of $4.25 million. By Barbara Matthews, Alan Markfield4 min

March 31980