October 12, 1987

View Full Issue Table of Contents

BUSINESS WATCH

CAESARS OF THE WILDERNESS

Like crusaders of the Middle Ages, they ultimately failed in their quest and soiled the banner under which they set out to conquer a continent. But between 1783 and 1820 the Nor’Westers braved the wilderness and won. Operating out of their counting houses in Montreal and a hundred or so outposts connected by an inland navy of 2,000 canoeists, they challenged the power and majesty—the very existence—of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and fought the Royal Adventurers to a standstill. By Peter C. Newman17 min

CANADA/COVER

DRAWING THE BATTLE LINES

As the deadline for last week’s national postal strike approached, all the signs pointed to a violent confrontation. During the last strike at the post office in June, there were violent clashes on the picket lines when Canada Post brought in temporary workers to replace striking letter carriers. By MARC CLARK13 min

COVER

Free Trade: A Historic Midnight Deal

The critical telephone call to Camp David reached President Ronald Reagan at 11:40 p.m., 20 minutes before the Saturday midnight deadline. Treasury Secretary James Baker told Reagan that U.S. and Canadian negotiators had agreed on the outline of a historic free trade pact.

WORLD

SPY MASTER REVELATIONS

He was a shambling, enigmatic figure with what one close friend called “a taste for the clandestine.” And when he collapsed last December on the eve of giving congressional testimony on the Irancontra affair, so powerful was his reputation for manipulation and secrecy that some congressmen privately said that he might be feigning an illness. By MARCI McDONALD6 min

DATELINE: STE-MARTHE, QUE.

A game for all classes

His team is trailing two goals to one when Steve Shutt breaks away from a defender and heads for the opposition’s goal. During his 12 years as a member of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team Shutt became one of the highest scoring left wingers in National Hockey League history. By BRUCE WALLACE5 min

COLUMN

When women do men’s work

Last February a Canadian human rights tribunal in Vancouver handed down a decision in the case of four female prison guards who had accused the RCMP of discrimination. The women had been working in RCMP lockups guarding both male and female prisoners, but in January, 1981, the RCMP reactivated its long-standing policy that prisoners must be guarded by persons of the same sex, arguing that the right of male prisoners to privacy in such intimate matters as using the toilet took precedence over the women’s need for absolute equality in employment. By Barbara Amiel5 min

COVER

MOVING THE MAIL IN OTHER COUNTRIES

Twice a day, five times a week, a letter carrier in the navy blue uniform of the Royal Mail walks up the path to Sue Hudson’s apartment in London’s Camden borough. Like other Britons, Hudson takes for granted prompt mail service to her home—and speedy delivery of the letters she mails.

TELEVISION

Local heroes and imported fantasies

Along with satirizing paper-shufflers and skewering bureaucratic bunglers, the CBC’s new comedy series, Not My Department! (Fri., 8 p.m.), offers an allegory about those who make Canadian television programs. The show’s feckless hero, Gerald Angstrum (Harry Ditson), is deputy minister for the department of regional incentive targets (DRIT)—and a man suffering an identity crisis. By PATRICIA HLUCHY5 min

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Regulating deregulation

It was the latest in a series of major moves by big Canadian banks into the newly deregulated investment sector. The Bank of Nova Scotia announced last week that it was purchasing the Toronto-based brokerage firm McLeod Young Weir Ltd. for an undisclosed amount estimated at up to $600 million.

BUSINESS

Mexico’s slow recovery

Many Mexicans call it “the Year of Hidalgo” after Miguel Hidalgo, a hero of the Mexican independence movement whose picture adorns the nation’s currency. It happens every six years when, in the runup to presidential elections, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) tries to attract votes by spending lavishly on public works projects.

October 51987