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Announces executives of Toronto-based Olympia & York Developments Inc. declared Canary Wharf, the company's project in the London docklands, bankrupt after failing to convince 11 international banks to accept equity in the project in return for an additional $1.4 billion in loans to complete the development. Accountants from Ernst & Young will supervise Canary Wharf operations; Court protection in Canada; Current state of American assets; The Reichmann empire.

Recounts some actions of Olympia & York Developments Ltd., Toronto, last week which succeeded in selling a 7.13 million share block of Trilon Financial Corp., valued at $65 million, and the negotiation of a $59 million short-term loan to cover operating expenses. O&Y owes a total of $14.3 billion and desperately needs cash. Work of chief debt negotiator Robert Miller; Frustration of Toronto investors; Lawyers head the list of beneficiaries; Vulture-fund investors; Scavengers.

Focuses on Robert (Steve) Miller and Gerald Greenwald, part of an elite class of corporate troubleshooters who either rescue financially troubled companies, or, if rescue proves impossible, their orderly breakup in whatever way would salvage as much of their value as possible for their creditors. Their efforts to placate the 91 bankers of Olympia & York Developments Ltd.; Plan to restructure and reschedule the company's massive loans; Success of the soothing approach; Remedies.

Summarizes changes made last week by the Reichmann brothers (Albert, Paul and Ralph) and their creditors in the Toronto-based empire. The Reichmann's relinquished sole direction of Olympia & York Developments Ltd., a private holding company, by installing Thomas Johnson; Reshuffling of family assets; Background of the Reichmann problems; Risk at Canary Wharf; Depressed rents. INSET: The outsider takes charge (profiles Thomas Johnson)..

Focuses on the North American stock markets, which are clearly anticipating that the worst of the recession is over. In the past six weeks the New York Stock Exchange's Dow Jones industrial average has climbed by 13 percent, while the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 composite index has climbed 9.5 percent in a wave of buying propelled by the continuing decline in interest rates. Companies' positioning for growth; Cyclical stocks and share prices; Analysis' optimism.

Outlines the current trend toward mergers in the trust industry, where last week the Montreal-based Laurentian Bank of Canada purchased the troubled La Financiere cooperants inc. for an undisclosed price, following the June purchase of the assets of the failed Standard Trust Co. Ltd. Federal government's drive to increase competition in the financial services sector; Fighting over a pool of retail customers; Trouble ahead for small regional trust companies.

Describes the current dilemma facing Stelco Inc.'s Hilton Works steel mill (Hamilton) a plant that, despite massive infusions of cash, remains relatively inefficient, with productivity levels well below North American standards. While Canada's steelmakers must upgrade to produce better grades of steel and remain competitive, they don't have the money to invest in modernization programs. Short-term outlook; Exports; Mini-mill technology.

Reports that the 321-year-old Hudson's Bay Co. is considering relocating many of its activities to United States border cities. Bay Co. executives as well as other Ontario businessmen are concerned about the economic policies of the province's NewDemocratic Party government. Reaction to Ontario Treasurer Floyd Laughren's maiden budget; Other NDP proposals that anger businessmen; Comments by Lawrence Tapp, president of Lawson Mardon Group Ltd., and other executives.

Discusses rival proposals by Montreal based transport company Bombardier Inc. and Swedish-Swiss multinational Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) to build a high-speed rail line between Quebec City, Que., and Windsor, Ont. Lobbying efforts; ABB Canada Inc. of Montreal; ABB's Sprintor train; ABB Canada's President Peter Janson; Interest of Canadian National Railways and Air Canada Ltd. in the project; Skepticism about the economic benefits.

Examines the reasons for the current downturn in Canada's forest products industry. Threat to Canada's economy; Plans to shut down the Spruce Falls Paper and Power Co. in Kapuskasing, Ont.; Downturn in Quebec, Ont., the Atlantic provinces, and British Columbia; Spending cuts and environmental standards; De-inking plants; Newsprint maker, Abitibi-Price Inc. of Toronto; Noranda Forest Inc. of Toronto; More.

Discusses the planned privatization of Petro-Canada. Comments by chief executive officer Wilbert Hopper; Upcoming public share offering; Spending versus earnings; Changes on the board of directors.

Discusses Canadian Airlines International Ltd.'s struggles to ready itself for unfettered competition between Canadian and United States carriers throughout North America. Company head Rhys Eyton's plan to attract foreign investment; Open-skies agreement between the US and Canada; Cabotage; Economic recession, fuel prices; Long-term debt. INSET: Turbulence in the skies (layoffs and economic problems faced....

Focuses on the effects of the past three months on Paul Reichmann, 61, the devoutly religious developer who has watched the courts of Canada and Britain take over the family properties. The family's Olympia & York Developments Ltd. forced to open its books; Unwavering observance of the Reichmann family's Orthodox Jewish faith; Paul Reichmann's involvement in seeking funds for Canary Wharf, London; Family involvement in O&Y; The role of the patriarch.

Speculates on last week's appearance in a Toronto court of Olympia & York Developments Ltd. officials in defense of challenges from creditors. Under the federal bankruptcy code, creditors are entitled to air their grievances in court and petition against the debtor protection. O&Y's offer to ease creditor anxiety over company use of cash flow from Canadian holdings; O&Y to separately account for each asset; Complaint concerning insufficient financial information; Bank pressure.

Reports that Paul, Albert and Ralph Reichmann offered representatives of 15 banks a share of their holding company, Olympia & York Developments Ltd., in return for a five year freeze on repaying their $14.3 billion debt. Comments from new president Gerald Greenwald, on staving off bankruptcy; Company default on a $17 million interest payment; Intermittent cash advances for Canary Wharf; O&Y's complex plan; Miscalculation of the world real estate market; Sales.

Considers the self-destructive tendencies of family fortunes as they pertain to individuals and their ensuing dynasties in Canada. Winnipeg's Richardson family: farm equipment, construction, real estate and a brokerage firm; Toronto's Reichmann family enterprise; Montreal's Molsons: reliance on the counsel of non-family managers for generations; Excessive family influence can be detrimental to investors; Problems in failure to make succession plans clear; Professional management.

States the Reichmann brothers stressed at the Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. annual meeting that Olympia & York Developments Ltd.'s 65 percent stake in Home Oil Ltd., Calgary, owned in conjunction with Gulf, is on the auction block. O&Y is under pressure to present an interim refinancing plan for Canary Wharf, London, while creditors for the Exchange Tower, Toronto, are threatening bankruptcy. Lawsuit filed by Robert Campeau; Interest payments due; Alternatives to patience.

Recounts the fifth meeting since June of Canadian Trade Minister Michael Wilson, US Trade Representative Carla Hills and Mexican Commerce Secretary Jaime Serra Puche to work out a consensus on the North American free trade agreement. Hills' goal of revising the existing Canada-US Free Trade Agreement; Criticisms of the proposed pact; Signs Wilson is giving ground on the FTA; The depressed economy. B

Focuses on four credit analysts who have been lowering their assessment of the world's largest landlords--Toronto's Reichmann family--to the point where investors refused to renew almost $800 million worth of Reichmann paper. President of Dominion Bond Rating Service, Walter Schroeder; Standard & Poor's Corp.'s William Chambers; Canadian Bond Rating Service and Moody's Investors Service; No loyalty in the money market; Well-considered judgments; Warning senior managers.

Outlines the arrangement between Bruce McNall, owner of the Toronto Argonauts football team, and BarterPlus Systems Inc., a Toronto-based organization, for a tradeoff between unsold Argonauts tickets and advertising for printing and other servicesneeded by the football team. McNall's familiarity with barter trade; Increasing cashless transactions; Barter's growth from under-the-table activity to respectibility; Possible problems with tax authorities.

Surveys Ottawa's plans to build a bridge between Prince Edward Island and the mainland across the Northumberland Strait. Public Works Minister Elmer MacKay announced last week that the three consortiums vying to build the bridge had met the necessary environmental requirements. Governmental approval expected by the end of April; Arranging private financing; Anti-link campaign; Ottawa's constitutional obligation to provide year-round transportation; P.E.I. approval.

Focuses on lotteries and other forms of gambling that are among the few areas of government revenue with any significant potential for growth. In Ontario, Quebec and the three prairie provinces spending on lottery games has leveled off, while theAtlantic provinces and British Columbia have had increases of 43 percent and eight percent respectively. New video and sports games; Profit motive and ethical reservations; Expected revenues; Comments from lottery officials.

Offers a look at conservative Imperial Oil Ltd., giant of the Canadian energy industry, which is expected to announce an estimated 1991 shortfall of as much as $50 million on revenues of more than $10 billion. Chairman Arden Haynes has frozen 1992 salaries for 5,500 managerial employees and announced 6,000 blue-collar workers will receive a maximum three percent wage increase. Reflection of the Canadian energy industry; Acquisition of Texaco Canada Inc.; Downsizing.

Scrutinizes the spectra of expensive cleanup operations and protracted lawsuits that have elevated the environment from an abstract moral issue to one of fundamental business practice. Company officials have learned they must have a solid record of environmental performance to attract new investment from the public and retain their existing base of shareholders. Changing attitudes of the business community toward the environment; Socially responsible investing; Green quotient.

Profiles Leslie Dan, 62, and his Novopharm Ltd., Canada's largest producer of generic drugs, who claims his business `is to break monopolies and patents.' Founded in 1965, Novopharm now supplies drugs dispensed for 22 million prescriptions annually and sales exceeding $150 million. Dispute between multinational drug companies and generic drug makers; 1992 review of Ottawa's drug patent law; Pressure from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association for 20-year exclusivity.

Profiles Robert Maxwell, 68, who died in mysterious circumstances last week, apparently suffering a heart attack and then falling overboard from his yacht, Lady Ghislaine. Maxwell's death shocked the communications world and shook his global business empire around the world. Two of his three sons immediately took over as chairmen of the family's two main companies. Maxwell's enormous debt load; Personal, driven style of management; Maxwell's Canadian holdings.

Considers Canada's office-space glut and details how few businesses are moving and developers are halting construction of office buildings. While the building boom of the 1980s created a historic glut of office space that is still growing, banks are making it more difficult for real estate developers to borrow money. Misalignment of supply and demand; Vacancy rates; Effects of delaying major construction projects; Sharp decline in interest rates; Calgary's escape.

Outlines the details of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's agreement to buy Nova Corp.'s 43 percent stake in oil-and-gas producer Husky Oil Ltd. for $325 million, and a promise to pump an additional $300 million in cash into Husky if the Canadiangovernment approves the deal. The agreement will make Li, 63, the first Hong-Kong-based investor to purchase outright control of an operating energy company. Li's background; Other Hong-Kong-based investors; Nova's debt.

Profiles Anthony Fell, 52, president and chief executive officer of the Toronto-based RBC Dominion Securities Inc., whose cost cutting at Dominion is responsible for much of the firm's growing domination of Bay Street in the midst of an industry-wide slump. Expanding the brokerage firm's already unrivalled list of major corporate clients; Dominion's takeover of Pemberton Securities Inc. (Vancouver) and McNeil Mantha Inc. (Montreal); Fell's background.

Describes the co-operative education program at Ontario's University of Waterloo, which brings Canadian business and the postsecondary education system closer together. Directed by James Wilson, the program involves 10,000 students each year, reflecting Waterloo's belief that education is incomplete without practical experience. Details of the co-op plan; Comments from students and employers involved; Funding; The transfer of technology.

Examines the financial problems facing Edmonton, Alberta's Iranian-born Ghermezian brothers, developers of the West Edmonton Mall, the world's largest shopping center. Raphael, Bahman, Eskander, and Nader Ghermezian; Decline in retail sales caused by the recession; Sale of Edmonton's Eaton Centre and the West Edmonton Village apartments; The brothers' Triple Five Corp. Ltd.; Construction of the Mall of America (Bloomington, Minn.).

Examines the reasons why more than 35 Canadian firms have issued new shares recently to cash in on a sudden surge of interest in new share issues. Why investors are interested; What various companies will do with the money raised; Lenders' policis; Revival of stock trading among small Canadian investors; Concern about corporate earnings and cash flow; Petro-Canada stock; Montreal-based pulp-and-paper producer Domtar Inc.

Explains how Allen Karp, president and chief executive officer of Cineplex Odeon Corp., is stabilizing the Toronto-based company's finances following former head Garth Drabinsky's resignation in December 1989. Debts; Sale of assets; Lack of profits; Concession sales; Success of the films that Cineplex exhibits; Drabinsky's comments.

Discusses Canada's domestic bias against Canadian wines and other problems facing the Canadian wine industry. Ontario wineries; 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement; Loss of tax advantages; How Canadian wines are making a headway in the international market; Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) program in Ontario and British Columbia; Small wineries such as Stone Church Vineyards (Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.) and Grand Pre Estates Winery in the Annapolis Valley.

Explains how Thailand's recent military coup has upset Montreal-based Lavalin International Ltd.'s bid to build a mass-transit system in Bangkok. Lavalin chairman Bernard LaMarre; Lavalin's cash-flow problems and other setbacks; Company's history.

Discusses speculation that Canadian brewer and consumer-products conglomerate John Labatt Ltd. will be sold to a foreign bidder. President and Chief Executive Officer Sidney Oland's efforts to streamline the company; Problems facing major shareholder, Toronto-based Brascan Ltd.; Attempts to find a foreign partner in the global beer market; Problems in Labatt's non-beer operations.

Explains how Juri Koor, 50, Standard Trustco Ltd.'s new president and chief executive officer, is trying to rescue the trust company from its bad real-estate loans. Sale of assets; Possible buyers; Falling share price; Problems facing Standard's controlling shareholder, Roman Corp. Ltd.; Roman's Denison Mines Ltd.

Offers comments by Canadians who are now unemployed due to the current recession. Charles Heinrich, former president and chief executive officer of Sherritt Gordon, a Toronto-based nickel-refining and fertilizer company; Former fish plant worker Patricia Ferguson, director of the Lockeport Support Centre (Lockeport, N.S.); Former Stelco Inc. foreman Milton Sherritt of Hamilton, Ont.; Former employees at the Stuart Lake Lumber Co. Ltd. (B.C.).

Profiles Christopher Ondaatje, 59, who launched a $25 million takeover bid for Loewen Ondaatje McCutcheon Inc. on June 1. Ondaatje, who has spent the past two years soul-searching and on safaris, co-founded LOM in 1970, but left in 1988 when his partners rejected his offer to acquire control of the company at $12 a share. Former partners have misgivings; Ondaatje's unpopularity at LOM; His controversial corporate record; The betting on Bay Street.

Outlines the crucial roles that Nova Scotia's Premier Donald Cameron and Clifford Frame, flamboyant founder that chairman of Curragh Resources Inc., played in securing government loan guarantees and other assistance for the Westray coal mine, where 26 men died following an explosion last month. Evidence governmental officials were aware of dangers at Westray; Frame's controversial record; Drop in Curragh's stock shares; 1991 company losses; Temporary layoff of miners.

Speculates on the disappearance of Sidney Reso, 57, president of Exxon International, on April 29. Reso vanished from his Mercedes shortly after 7:30 am, leaving his coat and briefcase on the front seat and the engine running. Actions of the Morristown, N.J., police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Looking for reasons for a voluntary disappearance; His personal and professional background; Possible abductors; Notes from Rainbow Warriors; Exxon offers reward.

Focuses on the World Financial Center, Manhattan, crown of the Reichmann family's troubled Olympic & York Developments Ltd. Designed by Argentinean Cesar Pelli, the four-building complex on the Hudson River was specifically excluded by O&Y's lawyers from the control of Canadian and American courts as they sought refuge from creditors. Other O&Y holdings exempted; Continuing challenges in the American market; Interest payments and taxes due.

Surveys Canary Wharf, a $7 billion jewel rising from the derelict former docklands of east London, being developed by Olympia & York Developments Ltd. The Reichmann's have spent an estimated $3.9 billion to construct the first 4.7 million squarefeet; $850 million is needed to complete the project; Major tenants in residence at Canary Wharf; Vacant office space and falling city rents; Other newly-opened projects in London; Commuting difficulties.

Recounts the opening of the securities trial of Paul Cohen, Venard (Len) Gaudet and Anthony Chestnutt, president, chairman and vice-president, respectively, of brokerage firm Osler Inc., charged on 263 counts of breaching securities law. The case was quickly adjourned to make way for a separate trial on 22 criminal charges of fraud, theft and possession of stolen property. Background of the case; Collapse of Osler.

Compares the fledgling `Sun-Times of Canada' and its major competitor the `Canada News,' both published in Florida and aimed at Canadians who live in Florida or stay there for several months of the year. Advertising and circulation; Background of each paper; Tabloid format; Ability of the expatriate Canadian market to support two rival weeklys.

Details how shoe importer Laurie Weston became an expert in foreign currency, and notes today's dollar has climbed to its highest level in 13 years. Weston and other Canadian importers are enjoying a currency edge over North American manufacturers. Predictions of currency traders; Investment by international investors seeking a solid return; Battle against domestic inflation.

Profiles Brent Belzberg, 40, chief executive officer of First City Financial Corp. Ltd., currently attempting to sell a radical restructuring plan for First City to the company's shareholders and creditors. If the plan is rejected, it may trigger the closure of the company and the sale of its assets. History of First City; Problems with accumulated debts; The restructuring plan.

Details the increased work at Canpar, a courier serviced based in Mississauga, Ont., following a strike at rival firm United Parcel Service (UPS), and a series of rotating walkouts by 46,000 of Canada's postal workers. The division of Canadian Pacific Ltd. has seen an increase in business of 40 percent, and is adding extra vehicles and staff. Contingency plans of courier companies; Losses at Toronto-based Purolator Ltd.

Discusses the Toronto business community's opposition to the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) government's economic policies. People Against the NDP Budget, a protest group founded by Toronto business executive John McBride, 33, and lawyer Loudon Owen, 33; The Budget Crisis Centre (Toronto, Ontario); The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Toronto; Media baron Conrad Black; Avoidance of an elitist image.

Describes the international expansion of CCL Industries Inc., a Toronto-based maker of consumer-goods containers, labels and personal-care products. CCL president Wayne McLeod; CCL's history; Impact of the 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement; How CCL works with the companies it has taken over; Employees' suggestions; Demand for private-label products.