The Incognito Reporter and the On-to-Ottawa Trek
by Michael Dupuis

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At the height of the Great Depression, 2,000 young, single, unemployed and homeless men decided to ride boxcars from Vancouver to Ottawa to seek work and wages from Prime Minister "Iron Heel" R.B. Bennett. Their undertaking became the On-To-Ottawa Trek. Vancouver Advocate cub reporter Mark Hunter is given the perilous assignment of infiltrating the Trek. Once accepted into the journey, can he remain incognito? Can he endure the odyssey's hardships and dangers? Also, can he survive the Trek's violent ending? Most important, can he provide objective and accurate reporting of the historic event?

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Michael Dupuis is a Canadian historian, writer and author. In 2006 he was a consultant to CBC television for Bloody Saturday, in 2011 to CBC television for Titanic: The Canadian Story and Danny Schur’s documentary Mike’s Bloody Saturday. In 2012 he contributed to Paul Heyer’s TITANIC Century: Media, Myth and the Making of a Cultural Icon. In 2014 Michael published Winnipeg’s General Strike Reports From The Front Lines, in 2017 Bearing Witness Journalists, Record Keepers and the 1917 Halifax Explosion and in 2018 The Winnipeg General Strike Ordinary Men and Women Under Extraordinary Circumstances. In 2020 he published his first novel The Reporter and the Winnipeg General Strike and in 2024 a second novel The Woman Reporter and the Halifax Explosion. Michael holds a BA (English) and MA (History) from University of Ottawa and a BED from University of Toronto. An avid pickle ball player, he lives in Perth, Ontario with his Golden retriever Ben. He can be reached at michaelgdupuis@gmail.com.

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Contributors

Author

Michael Dupuis

Artist

Michael Kluckner