Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 7, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba Photo by Sault Ste. Marie Tourism RESERVE TODAY Now processing $250 person deposits safely and securely right over the phone. TOUR GUESTS WHO RESERVE WILL BE PROVIDED AN INVOICE & BOOKING NOTES TO PREPARE FOR THE TOUR Full payment deadline approximately 45 days before departure $ 1,895 P/P Double Occupancy Single Supplement an additional $ 600 The package includes admission to attractions, both train trips and hotel accommodations, transfers, most meals, guest speakers, information kit, unique experiences related to the heritage of the area we are traveling and more. O N L Y 1 2 S P A C E S R E M A I N S O C A L L T O D A Y T O R E S E R V E A H I G H L I G H T A G A I N W I L L B E T H E T R I P O N T H E A G A W A C A N Y O N T O U R T R A I N A S N O T E D B E L O W O N D A Y 3 O F T H E T O U R SPECIAL READER OFFER Northern Ontario’s Fall Colours & Superior Region BY ROAD & RAIL You will enjoy summer more when you BOOK NOW knowing you can look forward to travelling in Canada to experience… B ook now with Rail Travel Tours on this unique 6-day 5-night package, round trip from Winnipeg for the fall colours around Lake Superior and region. This tour, offered nowhere else, features motor-coach travel, bush plane & boat heritage attractions and both of Ontario’s Superior Region’s scenic passenger day trip rail journeys. We have made arrangements for you to enjoy all the hotel stays, visits to attractions, reserved train tickets during the prime fall season, most meals and more on this memorable tour, with space that is expecting to again go fast. Below is a detailed day by day itinerary with more details. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 TO FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2024 CONTACT TO RESERVE AT 204-897-9551 (in Winnipeg) OR TOLL FREE 1-866-704-3528 RAIL TRAVEL TOURS V I A R a i l ’s S u d b u r y – W h i t e R i v e r u n i q u e R a i l D i e s e l C a r ( R D C ) r e m o t e r a i l j o u r n e y C d n B u s h P l a n e H e r i t a g e C e n t r e , S a u l t S t e . M a r i e C C G S A l e x a n d e r H e n r y m u s e u m s h i p i n T h u n d e r B a y P h o t o b y F L e s i u k L a k e S u p e r i o r ’s S c e n i c N o r t h S h o r e SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2024 The tour will start with a morning departure from Winnipeg by motor-coach heading east toward Ontario. We will stop in Ignace Ontario to visit their community museum and enjoy lunch here before continuing east to enjoy more views of the changing foliage. Arriving Thunder Bay we have a planned visit to see the former Canadian Coast Guard Icebreaker museum ship the Alexander Henry docked here on the Lake Superior. After the tour we will check into the classic railway hotel The Prince Arthur Waterfront Hotel (those that book early will get rooms overlooking Lake Superior) and have dinner here before planned time to enjoy the hotel’s pool or hot tub or nearby attractions and overnight here. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2024 Today, after breakfast at our hotel, continuing east we will enjoy the fall colours around the scenic North Shore of Lake Superior from the windows of our motorcoach and a few stops along the way including a planned visit to the Winnie the Pooh Park in White River. Arriving at Sault Ste. Marie, we have scheduled some time to Visit the fantastic Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre to view their large collection of aircraft and WILDFIRES 3-D presentation in their interactive theatre on fighting forest fires from the air. After our museum visit we will check into our Sault Ste Marie hotel for some planned free time before overnighting here. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2024 The inclusive hotel breakfast will be enjoyed early this morning so we can transfer to and board the Agawa Canyon Tour train for its morning departure. This popular scenic 114 mile day train trip features fantastic views from high trestles, curving around numerous lakes and rugged wilderness terrain is rated one of the top rail journeys in North America. Guests will enjoy lunch we will provide and time to stretch their legs in the Agawa Canyon Park stop where Group of Seven paintings seem to come alive in every direction you look. After enjoying the park’s groomed trails we will return to Sault Ste. Marie by rail to again enjoy the fall colours scenery from our train, After some time to visit the station gift shop back in Sault Ste. Marie we will transfer back to our hotel here for some free time after a full day on the rails and time for guests to wind down the day on their own. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 After again enjoying the inclusive breakfast at our hotel this morning we will continue east to the City of Sudbury and visit some of their largest attractions this afternoon. Here we will learn about some of the area’s mining heritage at the Dynamic Earth tour (where the Big Nickel is located) and the Northern Ontario Railroad Museum and Heritage Centre. We will also enjoy a locally prepared dinner here before overnighting in downtown Sudbury at our hotel that overlooks the city skyline and the tracks that travel west where we will be heading the following day. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2024 After breakfast at the hotel we will enjoy the all daylight train trip on VIA Rail’s unique Rail Diesel Car service. This lesser known and equally scenic rail journey from Sudbury, travels the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline through remote and pristine Canadian Shield wilderness (passing Onaping Falls, fur trade river routes; isolated lakes and more) for our guests to enjoy the fall colours on the last operating train of this type in Canada. Arriving in White River, at the same platform where a bear named Winnipeg (Winnie for short) was purchased by Captain Harry Colebourn, we will visit their museum and learn about the origins of this famous bear cub before enjoying supper and overnight here. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2024 Today will be our final travel day with more great views around the North Shore of Lake Superior and Northwestern Ontario. We also plan to stop to see the stunning Terry Fox Monument that overlooks Thunder Bay & Lake Superior. Our westward journey today will end back in Winnipeg, in the late afternoon, with great memories and lots of pictures to show family and friends. Guests can add on pre and post night stays at our partner hotel in East Winnipeg, where the package will begin and end from, for the ease of taking part in the tour with more details about this included in the guest booking notes or asking when you reserve. SOME OF LAST YEAR’S GUESTS SAID: “Felt well cared for…great trip from beginning to end and I look forward to booking another trip”. “I thoroughly enjoyed the tours and all the visits we made and impressed with how well organized things were.” “Loved the time at the Agawa Canyon Park to explore the waterfalls and other scenery here.” “It was a great time to travel and enjoy the beautiful colours”. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2024 A8 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I CANADA Ottawa considers changes to reduce the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada OTTAWA — The federal government is considering new regulations that could make fewer employers eligible to hire temporary foreign workers, Employ- ment Minister Randy Boissonnault said Tuesday. Following a meeting with a group of business associations, the minister an- nounced a suite of changes he plans to pursue. Boissonnault told the group that the temporary foreign worker program cannot be used to circumvent hiring Canadian workers, a news release said. The minister outlined ways in which the government may restrict eligibility for the program, including looking at how long a business has operated and whether it has a history of layoffs. Boissonnault warned there will also be more rigorous oversight in areas with a high risk for fraud and said he is considering increasing fees associated with the program. “I’ve been clear over the last year; abuse and misuse of the temporary foreign worker program must end,” he said in a statement. The temporary foreign worker pro- gram came under renewed scrutiny as businesses ramped up their participa- tion in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to public data from Immi- gration, Refugees and Citizenship Can- ada, 183,820 temporary foreign worker permits became effective in 2023. That was up from 98,025 in 2019 — an 88 per cent increase. Economists have raised concerns that making it too easy to bring in temporary foreign workers can hinder wage growth domestically and discour- age businesses from investing in pro- ductivity-enhancing technology. The massive increase in the number of temporary residents in recent years has also been blamed for a Canada-wide crunch on available housing. The proposed changes also come months after Boissonnault and Im- migration Minister Marc Miller an- nounced plans to reduce the number of temporary residents in Canada to five per cent over the next three years. The latest population estimate from Statistics Canada suggested that, as of April 1, temporary residents made up 6.8 per cent of the population. — The Canadian Press LAURA OSMAN AND NOJOUD AL MALLEES Tories deny party connected to ‘bot’ posts O TTAWA — The Conservatives say they have no connection to a rash of conspicuously similar so- cial-media posts that flooded the X plat- form following a Pierre Poilièvre event in northern Ontario last week. The Conservative leader held a rally at a conference centre in Kirkland Lake on July 31, to what appears in a video to be a packed room of several hundred people. Three days later the platform former- ly known as Twitter was awash in hun- dreds of posts from individuals claim- ing they “just got back” from the rally and were “buzzing from the energy.” The posts came from accounts with less than five followers, many of which had joined the platform just this month. Very few listed a current location in Canada, and many had already been disabled by Tuesday morning. NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose Tim- mins-James Bay riding includes the town of Kirkland Lake, said the deluge raises a question about whether the Conservatives hired an offshore bot farm to “create a false impression of momentum” for Poilièvre in the riding. Sarah Fischer, the director of com- munications for the Conservatives, ac- cused the NDP of “spreading baseless conspiracy theories.” “The CPC does not pay for bots and has no idea who is behind these ac- counts,” Fischer said in a written state- ment. “We are seeking the support of actual Canadians, as witnessed by large in-person turnouts at our events.” Poilièvre is making a strong push to win seats in northern Ontario, includ- ing Timmins-James Bay, where Angus is not seeking re-election after repre- senting the area for two decades. The Kirkland Lake stop was one of several Poilièvre made on a northern Ontario tour in the last week of July. The Conservative leader made a stop in Winnipeg July 28 to rally support in the Elmwood-Transcona riding recent- ly vacated by Daniel Blakie. The riding is another NDP stronghold the party is taking aim at in a Sept. 16 by-election. Fischer said similar bot accounts post favourable comments about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provided a link to several accounts with nearly identical posts about being “disgusted” by the negative attacks on Trudeau and calling him the “best prime minister we’ve ever had.” She also pointed out two bot accounts that posted about Poilièvre’s rally also posted things she said are “not compli- mentary to the Conservative leader.” The accounts she linked include posts calling for action on climate change, a complaint about unions, a love for pickle ball, a recent conversion to whole wheat bread and pasta, and elections and politics in Germany, Australia and Venezuela. Fischer did not respond when asked if the party was requesting X take any action about the posts. A media request made to X was met with an unsigned automated reply, saying “busy now, please check back later.” Duane Bratt, a politics professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said the hundreds of accounts that posted about the Poilièvre rally “have all the trappings” of being bots. They have a limited number of followers, the account handles are usually a name fol- lowed by a series of random letters or numbers and, if they have more than one post, the topics are incongruous. “In this particular case, yeah, I would go on the record to say 100 per cent that they’re bots,” he said. Bratt said there have been similar bot events in multiple countries for nearly a decade already. Following the G7 leaders summit in Quebec in 2018, Canada and its allies created a “G7 Rapid Response Mech- anism” meant to investigate possible incidents of foreign state-sponsored disinformation campaigns. In 2019, Canada’s mechanism reported the existence of a significant, organized fake social media campaign in the Al- berta provincial election. Global Affairs Canada did not re- spond to The Canadian Press when asked if the tweets about Poilièvre’s rally are being investigated. Bratt said most often the goal isn’t to create new divisions, but to amplify ex- isting ones. He said they absolutely have an im- pact on Canada’s politics but most often they are not traceable, and are difficult to stop. He said it has been worse since Elon Musk bought Twitter, eventually rebranding it as X. Musk erased some safety protocols and reduced the num- ber of staff, including those responsible for overseeing trust and safety on the platform. “Of course it’s damaging,” Bratt said. “It spreads misinformation. It gives ap- pearances that may not withstand real- ity. But I’m not sure there is much we can do to stop it. — The Canadian Press MIA RABSON Hundreds of conspicuously similar social media posts published following northern Ontario rally JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES Conservative Leader Pierre Poilièvre campaigns in Winnipeg last month. The party rejects accusations it is behind suspected bot posts. ;