May 19, 1980

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OCCUPATIONAL DEATH

From the front Tommy Dunn looks like any other young father. He sits in the easy chair in early April sipping beer, while across the room his nine-year-old daughter, Shannon, sprawls reading on the couch. It’s only when he turns his head that you notice his hair has been falling out in strips. By Linda McQuaig10 min

THE BATTLES OF BRITAIN

The two ominous booms that split a sunlit holiday evening over Hyde Park last week might have presaged a disastrous debacle. But the fiveday siege of the Iranian embassy in London (see box, page 22) which followed the hostage-taking by opponents of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became an international triumph—the more spectacular because of President Jimmy Carter’s botched attempt to rescue the Tehran hostages. By Carol Kennedy9 min

This Canada

‘Yes’ and ‘no' on the home front

The perspiration rolled in rivulets down the woman's slender back as she stepped away from the rambling house into the brisk April blackness of the street. “I don’t even remember what I said in there,” exclaimed Shirley Maynes, 43. For more than 30 minutes she, a canvasser for the “non" side in the Quebec referendum, had held her own with a young, nationalistic schoolteacher supporting the “oui" side. By Robert Lewis7 min

Canada

Plus ça change, plus ça change

A central pitch to both sides of next week's Quebec referendum is that a vote in either direction can lead to the same place—a better deal for Quebec in Canada. For many “oui” voters approaching the fudged question, “yes” means “no” to independence but support for a renewed Confederation wager. By Robert Lewis6 min

People

"I don't keep them from doing what they want, and I don't think they have any right to bother me,” pouts Dorothy Stratten—referring to possible reaction from fern-libs who think driving a truck is liberating, while Stratten chose to free herself by peeling for Playboy shutters to the tune of $25,000. By Maureen Piercy6 min

Letters

As an ex-Canadian fighter pilot who had to eject on his first flight in a CF-104 Starfighter when the single engine failed, I am only too cognizant of the sense in the recent government decision to buy the twin-engined F-18A (New Wings and a Prayer, Canada, April 21).

Canada

The five-per-cent decision

All was going according to plan until, at the end of René Lévesque’s pitch, the old folks didn’t applaud. They had been lured to the parish hall in the village of St-Pierre les Bequets by the promise of a card party. Bewilderment showed in their faces when the premier arrived with his entourage of journalists and the portable cheering section accompanying his Tuesday ramble through Lotbinière County. By David Thomas5 min

Profile

Quebec’s front man in English Canada

You wouldn't call Gérald Godin a sweet talker. Neither would he. He says that's one of the beauties of being a radical in politics: “Nobody expects me to waste time on bullshit.” Godin is the muckraking poet/journalist who turned Parti Québécois candidate and unseated Premier Robert Bourassa in the 1976 Quebec election, which brought the PQ to power. By James Quig5 min

Podium

A case for a ‘yes’ vote

Of course the question, and consequently the answer, doesn't go as far as I would have wanted it to go. But there's nothing I can do about it. Of course I answered “yes” to the independence of Quebec years ago. And of course I cannot but answer “yes” to a question asking me for a mandate to negotiate a new entente with Canada based on the definition of sovereignty-association. By Pierre Bourgault5 min

Yugoslavia

The man who made an island

Yugoslavia, the saying used to run, boasts seven neighbors, six republics, five nationalities, four languages, three religions, two alphabets and one Yugoslav—Marshal Tito. This week Josip Broz Tito, the man who outwitted Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and outlasted every one of the charismatic generation of leaders—Churchill, de Gaulle, Mao Tse-tung—with whom he was so closely associated, died at 87. By Michael Dobbs5 min

May 121980