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First Nations - CF help, protests, solutions, residential schools, etc. (merged)

Drifting further off the topic of First Nations but remaining seized with the issue of fat, idle buffoons (Theresa Spence, meet Mike Duffy) we should look at S.23 (5) of the Constitution which says that to be qualified to be a Senator a person "shall be resident in the Province for which he is appointed." (He includes she.) The whole thing is likely to turn on whether or not "resident in" means, "lives there" (nearly) full time or simply "has a residence in," such as Sen Duffy's cottage or Sen Wallin's occasional use of her family home.

It is likely that the Speaker will rule in favour of the second, less onerous, condition and that the courts, even the Supremes, will be loath to challenge a ruling of the Speaker of the Senate.

 
E.R. Campbell said:
Drifting further off the topic of First Nations but remaining seized with the issue of fat, idle buffoons (Theresa Spence, meet Mike Duffy) we should look at S.23 (5) of the Constitution which says that to be qualified to be a Senator a person "shall be resident in the Province for which he is appointed." (He includes she.) The whole thing is likely to turn on whether or not "resident in" means, "lives there" (nearly) full time or simply "has a residence in," such as Sen Duffy's cottage or Sen Wallin's occasional use of her family home.

It is likely that the Speaker will rule in favour of the second, less onerous, condition and that the courts, even the Supremes, will be loath to challenge a ruling of the Speaker of the Senate.

Hasn't this issue come up before, regarding a senator who basically lived in Mexico and showed up like twice a year?
 
Ideally we would see a single standard for residency for all members of Parliament, whether senators or members of the house of commons.

In my imperfect world, Senators and MPs would be resident in and pay taxes to the provice they represent.  It helps align their interests with those that they notionally represent.  And any elective relocation by the Senator would not result in any increase of entitlements - we'll call that "The Harb Clause".

...my imperfect world would also see MPs prosecuted to the full extent of the law for forgery, right, Mr Fox?
 
This is a bit of a topical stretch, but I always associate noted lawyer Tony Merchant with First Nations issues and now he and his wife, Senator Pana Merchant (Liberals, Saskatchewan) are, or appear to be, caught up in a potential tax evasion scandal according to this article which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from iPolitics:

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2013/04/03/liberal-senator-husband-face-possible-tax-investigation/
Liberal senator, husband face possible tax investigation

By Elizabeth Thompson

Apr 3, 2013

A Liberal senator and her husband are facing the prospect of an investigation by the Canada Revenue Agency following the revelation that her husband has a secret bank account in an offshore tax haven.

Revenue Minister Gail Shea said last night that she expects CRA officials to act following a report by the CBC that Senator Pana Merchant’s husband, high profile Saskatchewan lawyer Tony Merchant, set up a $1.7 million account in the Cook Islands in 1998 and that his wife and children are beneficiaries of the account.

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“I expect CRA officials to review any information they receive and aggressively pursue all suspected cases of tax evasion,” Shea said in a statement.

While it is not illegal for Canadians to have offshore bank accounts, it is illegal not to report the proceeds of any such accounts on your income tax return.

According to the CBC report, Merchant is one of 450 Canadians with offshore accounts mentioned in a massive leak of 2.5 million pages of offshore bank files to the Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which worked on the story with top investigative journalists in 46 countries. Reports on the contents of the files and the 130,000 names they contain are rolling out throughout the world.

The revelation comes less than a month after Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tabled his latest budget, a budget that contained measures to crack down on offshore tax evasion by Canadians including measures to encourage Canadians to inform CRA of suspected tax evasion.

An investigation by CRA would not be the first time Merchant, a prominent lawyer known for his many class-action suits, and the agency have gone head to head. According to the CBC report, Merchant set up the account at the same time as he was battling CRA over his taxes. After setting up the Merchant (2000) US Inc Trust in 1998, he later had the trust open an account in Bermuda with Lines Overseas Management and used it to buy mutual funds.

Documents obtained by the ICIJ show that Merchant was very discreet about the account from the very start.

“Keep correspondence to a minimum,” reads one note in his Cook Islands account. “Do not fax to client. He will have a stroke.”

When it came time to pay the fees for the account, Merchant sent cash or traveler’s cheques, despite a warning by a lawyer that the bank could not guarantee the safety of cash sent by mail.

The files list Merchant, his wife and their three sons as the beneficiaries of the account. There was no mention in the report or the documents the CBC put online whether Pana Merchant was aware of the account or that she was a beneficiary.

Tony Merchant and his law firm, Merchant Law Group, is particularly known for its class-action suits, including a $1.9 billion settlement for residential school survivors.

Pana Merchant and Tony Merchant have not yet returned phone calls from iPolitics.

More later….

elizabeththompson@ipolitics.ca

© 2013 iPolitics Inc.


An awful lot of money passed through Tony Merchant's hands in, especially, the residential schools lawsuits. And both he and his wife are widely and deeply connected to the Liberal Party of Canada.
 
Here is a fairly depressing analysis of the prospects for unrest among our First Nations by John Ivison of the National Post. It is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act.

John Ivison: Grim report warns Canada vulnerable to an aboriginal insurrection

Mankind is at a crossroads, Woody Allen once quipped: “One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”

Canada’s relations with its aboriginal people are also at a crossroads but, fortunately, one of the potential paths forward promises a more auspicious outcome than Mr. Allen’s doomsday scenario.

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute think-tank laid out the options in two important essays released Wednesday. One paper, by Ken Coates and Brian Lee Crowley, outlines an optimistic vision where aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians find ways to collaborate on natural resource development, to the benefit of all.

A more pessimistic report, by Douglas Bland, suggests that Canada has all the necessary “feasibility” conditions for a violent native uprising — social fault lines; a large “warrior cohort”; an economy vulnerable to sabotage; a reluctance on the part of governments and security forces to confront aboriginal protests; and a sparsely populated country reliant on poorly defended key infrastructure like rail and electricity lines.

Mr. Coates and Mr. Lee Crowley suggested that aboriginal people are in a “sweet spot” when it comes to natural resource development — the result of treaty agreements, court settlements and Supreme Court decisions.

Mr. Coates said many First Nations have made it clear they want to work within the structure of Canada by taking their grievances to court, a process that culminated with a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2004 that said companies who want to develop resources on traditional native land have a “duty to consult and accommodate.” This gives aboriginal people substantial influence over resource decisions, if not a legal veto, and has led to the emergence of well-funded community development corporations, impact-benefit agreements, indigenous collaboration and resource revenue sharing. (British Columbia has led the way with a new mineral tax.)

The authors point out these kinds of deals are not a panacea — the troubled Attawapiskat reserve has a royalty-sharing agreement with De Beers over its Victor diamond mine, yet has recently seen a state of emergency declared again.

But their conclusion is that even such movements as Idle No More —“overwhelmingly peaceful and culturally rich” — suggest accommodation is possible, if native Canadians receive a “fair” share of the country’s wealth.

That’s the good news. There’s precious little sunshine in Douglas Bland’s paper, Co-operation or Conflict?

He took the accepted “feasibility” hypothesis, developed by researchers at Oxford University, as the basis for predicting civil unrest and applied it to Canada. The findings are scary enough to make you stock up on canned food and start digging your bunker.

The Oxford research suggests that “feasibility,” rather than root causes, is the foundation for challenging civil authority. In Canada, it seems, unrest is very feasibile. “Social fractionalization” along native and non-native fault lines is obvious. There is a growing warrior cohort — by 2017, 42% of First Nations population on the Prairies will be under 30 — many disadvantaged, poorly educated, unemployed and angry. The economy is dependent on moving resources over long, hard-to-defend transportation routes. Finally, the security forces are limited by capacity and the will of their leaders to confront aboriginal protesters who break the law.

While the Oxford hypothesis suggests feasibility is the determinant and predictor of insurgency, it does not dismiss that grievances do provide motive. And Mr. Bland’s paper reels off some particularly damning statistics: a homicide rate of 8.8/100,000 compared with 1.3/100,000 in the non-aboriginal population; a stratospheric incarceration rate that means 80% of prisoners in Alberta are aboriginal (out of 11% of the population); a high school graduation rate of 24% of 15 to 24-year-olds, compared with 84% in the non-native population; a 40% youth unemployment rate and on and on.

Mr. Bland argues that, in some respects, an uprising has and is occurring, “as a quick head count of the Warrior Cohort inside our penal colonies will demonstrate.”

In the event of an insurgency, the Canadian economy could be shut down in weeks. The 2012 CP Rail strike cost an estimated $540-million a week, as it hit industries including coal, grain, potash, nickel, lumber and autos. Some First Nations leaders like Terry Nelson in Manitoba have already concluded that a covert operation involving burning cars on every railway line would be impossible to stop.

Mr. Bland cites Manitoba, with its vulnerable transportation hub, as a province with a large native population and a relatively small police presence that would be unable to guarantee security in the event of even a modest protest. “The reality is that the security of Manitoba now and in the future is whatever the First Nations allow it to be,” he quotes one security specialist as saying. “[And] as the security guarantee drifts lower, the feasibility of confrontation climbs higher.”

It makes for grim reading, but Mr. Bland suggests there are ways to diminish the feasibility factor and create conditions for the happier outcome put forward by Messrs. Coates and Lee Crowley.

He suggested resource revenue-sharing; a Marshall Plan style reconstruction package that acknowledges some sort of native sovereignty; programs aimed at dealing with aboriginal incarceration; comprehensive resettlement of remote communities; and a well-funded First Nations leadership institution as ways to address some of the frustrations felt by natives on reserves.

But the logic of the feasibility hypothesis means the most effective way to prevent an insurrection is to make one less feasible. Hence, he concludes Ottawa must reinforce the security guarantee in and near First Nations by safeguarding critical transportation infrastructure, beefing up policing on reserves and cracking down on illegal drugs.

In his conclusion, Mr. Lee Crowley said that, on balance, there are strong reasons for optimism. “The feeling that this is an intractable problem where progress can never be made is not true,” he said.

But, having read both papers, I tend to side with Mr. Allen’s (and perhaps Mr. Bland’s) more gloomy world view.
 
I have to be careful sharing opinions on this subject due to my current position, so I'll put my statements with the normal caveat that it is only my opinion (however I am not alone in what I think.)

The issue with First Nations communities goes way beyond resource development and sharing.  There is a systematic flaw in the overall concept of the reserve system within Canada that has helped to create a welfare state within Canada and it's truly coming to head.  Some Chiefs and Councils do have a vested interest in seeing their communities grow and change for the better, and have a real heart for the youth to see them succeed.  Unfortunately this focus is not shared across the board and instead the hand is constantly out or the finger is being pointed everywhere they can to blame the government and everyone else for any and all predicaments they are currently in.  There is little to no accountability for the success or failure of their communities right from the top down, and the sense that as First Nations people the government owes them everything.  There are many individuals that seek to better themselves and realise that their future within their community is potentially limited for jobs, education etc so they move out and try to fit within society to in fact contribute in a meaningful way.  Don't get me wrong I fully support maintaining traditions and culture and a sense of pride in where you came from, but when living in a fly in only community that has an unemployment rate of 85%+ and you expect the band and the government to support you in every way imaginable, things need to change.  I firmly believe that no matter your background if you are a Canadian citizen you are entitled to certain rights that every other Canadian is as well, but to set a certain class above one another and then financially support them above and beyond every other municipal government throughout Canada without financial accountability or a proper economic plan in place, then how are any of us surprised when situations such as the Attawapiskat housing crises or the "ring of fire" ongoing issues exist.

I don't even know where to start, but when the above article talks about a population of youth is disenfranchised with their future, how is anyone sitting back with a look of shock on their face when there isn't much of a future to be had in some of these communities.  High unemployment, a lack-luster education system and little to no sense of drive for accomplishment within the community at large due to the government providing for every facet of life, it's no wonder things are coming to a head.

I truly believe that if the Canadian public personally visited these communities and truly saw how bands are operated and how disfunctional many of these communities were, there would be hell to pay.  It's one thing to talk about what happens or read about it from the slant of whatever news agency is providing you the information, it's another thing entirely to be there in person when you walk into a community and see how First Nations people live.  I have seen the success stories and I have seen the failures, and quite often the key ingredient that either exists or is missing is a willingness to accept responsibility for your own personal actions and then move forward with a drive to better yourself and those around you in your day to day actions.
 
Canadian.Trucker said:
I truly believe that if the Canadian public personally visited these communities and truly saw how bands are operated and how disfunctional many of these communities were, there would be hell to pay.

Unfortunately wishful thinking.  Even after mayor spence had her little show, there were plenty of people who were and still are willfuly blind to the corruption and ineptitude that is rife across bands around the country, and in alot of  cases pretty much self inflicted.  The feds need to have the RCMP investigate the fraud and corruption in these communities and start charging them, and they need to start doing a better job of conducting psyops/info ops whatever you want to call it, in these remote and hermit like reserves.  Sure the lib/left/agitator brigade is going to whine and complain, but the current practice of throwing more money at the problem and  ignoring blatant corruption sure hasn't worked.
 
Hatchet Man said:
Unfortunately wishful thinking.  Even after mayor spence had her little show, there were plenty of people who were and still are willfuly blind to the corruption and ineptitude that is rife across bands around the country, and in alot of  cases pretty much self inflicted.  The feds need to have the RCMP investigate the fraud and corruption in these communities and start charging them, and they need to start doing a better job of conduction psyops/info ops whatever you want to call it, in these remote and hermit like reserves.  Sure the lib/left/agitator brigade is going to whine and complain, but the current practice of throwing more money at the problem and  ignoring blatant corruption sure hasn't worked.
I disagree with it being wishful thinking.  Sure there are always going to be those with the blinders on to reality, but for the most part of general joe-blow Canuck personally saw how things were by phsically standing in some First Nations communities, eyes would be open.

I agree with the investigations, but until there is the political will to move forward with the hard changes that are needed, we're going to be left with the same dysfunctional system we have in place.
 
Here, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the National Post, is a real idle no more story, and a good news story at that:

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/09/25/matt-gurney-how-a-first-nations-band-is-fixing-its-big-welfare-problem-with-a-small-solution/
5178-NationalPostLogo3.jpg

How a First Nations band is fixing its big welfare problem with a small solution

Matt Gurney

25/09/13

There’s an old proverb that tells how an entire kingdom was lost because a horse throws a shoe, “for want of a nail.” It reminds us how seemingly small details can have big, even disastrous, consequences. One small native band has taken the meaning behind the proverb to heart, but has turned it on its head: The small detail is now saving a community, not dooming it.

The local leadership, and their partners in the federal government, have benefited mightily from a decision not to let their community suffer for want of not nails, but boots. With a few buses and shuttle vans thrown in for good measure.

The boots in question are steel-toed construction boots, and they’ve made a huge difference on Little Pine First Nations reserve, home to 600-some-odd souls located about 90 kilometres southwest of the city of Lloydminster, on the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Little Pine had been paying unemployed band members welfare, until a pilot project begun last year began putting locals to work.

Under the program, run jointly by the band and the federal Northern Affairs Department, resumes were collected and distributed to local (that term is used somewhat loosely here) employers. Job training was provided for anyone who needed to learn, or improve, a skill. Many of the band members were desired by the employers, but were unable to accept the employment because they either had no way to get to where the jobs were, or lacked the equipment necessary to accept the position.

Enter the buses and the boots.

There were 70 band members who were eager to work and had jobs waiting, but didn’t have the steel-toed safety boots to safely work on the job site, a Husky Energy project. So the band raised $7,000 dollars and bought every member willing to work a pair of boots. To get the workers to the jobsite, the band also bought two buses and two shuttle vans.

The results have been remarkable. After the first 70 band members got working, others in the community began to look for employment. “When they see all these friends and family members go to work, they want to be a part of it too,” said Chief Wayne Semaganis. “It’s a sense of belonging.” A further 30 band members have found work outside the band, including work in the retail sector or hospitality industries in larger communities in the region. The total effect of the project, thus far, has been cutting Little Pine’s welfare roster. Chief Semaganis said when he first became chief four years ago, he’d have to sign well over 400 welfare cheques a month. Now, it’s just over 100.

That itself is an achievement. But Chief Semaganis went further, saying that some of the real effects of the initiative have been social. The community has become calmer, as men who work all day are too tired to stay out at night, perhaps getting into trouble. “For young people to see their parents, older brothers and sisters, and older relatives working, it’s a good example,” he said. “That’s all we look for, to make it better for our children and our grandchildren.”

The paycheques the employees are bringing home are bigger than their welfare cheques, which average at $255 a month for individual men and women. Some band members are now getting paid as much as $20 an hour for full-time work, said Chief Semaganis, meaning there’s more money in the community and more food on the family dinner table.

It’s a happy story. Not just because it’s a pleasant change to hear news of a remote northern community that’s improving, rather than grappling with suicide, isolation and tainted water. But it’s also a story that should be heard far and wide, especially  by any — in or out of government — that thinks helping Canada’s natives to lead dignified and fulfilled lives as fully contributing citizens of this country is too big a problem to be solved.

Totally eliminating welfare is impossible, said Chief Semaganis, because many who rely on it cannot physically go to work. “But certainly for the ones that have the capacity, we should be finding ways to get them to work…Hopefully down the road people can truly look after themselves without that extra push, and that’s where we want to get.”

It’s too big a problem to be solved by yet another blue-ribbon panel or national investment program, perhaps. But we’ve had enough of those. In a lot of cases, the real path to prosperity isn’t going to be the Ottawa bureaucracy, but a new pair of workboots, and maybe a shuttle van or two.

National Post, with files from Tanya Mok


Isn't it amazing what a little leadership can do?

Hello, Chief Spence up there in Attawapiskat, can you read? Can you talk with a fellow chief? Can you manage to follow a good example? Or is cheap publicity and welfare all there is to your vision for your First Nation?
 
Amazing that something as simple as "minor logistics" like a shuttle bus and work boots can solve a community's problems. 

Many communities like this have addressed some "root causes" if you'll forgive the use of the term. 

I witnessed this in a Northern (ie arctic) community where they increased their high school completion rates by simply having an open door welcome back policy.  Kids at 15, 16 and 17 woudl drop out to either hunt or provide for their families.  many wanted to go back to school years later at 22-23-24 years of age but couldn't get back into the school system (age).  But letting them back into the high school proper gave them that chance.  The school system adapted to a way of life and they can boast one of the highest HS completion rate in the northern regions.

Sometimes simple and obvious works.
 
A long time ago in the 90s, CFB Shilo used to bus FN men and women in and supply all work clothing and equipment.  It seemed to work pretty well for a 15 folks, I wonder if they still do it.
 
E.R. Campbell said:
Here, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the National Post, is a real idle no more story, and a good news story at that:

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/09/25/matt-gurney-how-a-first-nations-band-is-fixing-its-big-welfare-problem-with-a-small-solution/

Isn't it amazing what a little leadership can do?

Hello, Chief Spence up there in Attawapiskat, can you read? Can you talk with a fellow chief? Can you manage to follow a good example? Or is cheap publicity and welfare all there is to your vision for your First Nation?
Attawapiskat is in an even better position having the De Beers mine so close.  Many in the community already work there in fact, but if you read in the news picketing has been going on recently against the mine because the band wants more money.  It's a gong show to say the least.
 
E.R. Campbell said:
Here, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the National Post, is a real idle no more story, and a good news story at that:

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/09/25/matt-gurney-how-a-first-nations-band-is-fixing-its-big-welfare-problem-with-a-small-solution/

Isn't it amazing what a little leadership can do?

Hello, Chief Spence up there in Attawapiskat, can you read? Can you talk with a fellow chief? Can you manage to follow a good example? Or is cheap publicity and welfare all there is to your vision for your First Nation?

She was probably too busy driving around in her Escalade, checking out the very expensive Zamboni ice resurfacing machine at the community rinkthat they bought instead of doing basic housing repairs, planning her next  publicity diet stunt (don't forget to make reservations at the local five star hotel so you can get a good night's sleep - TeePees are so uncomfortable) or hanging out with her big plasma TV and satellite service to worry about the little people of her Band.

I was recently in Kelowna and witnessed the entrepreneurial expertise of the  Westbank band.  Very impressive. The Feds should just hire them to run Aboriginal  Affairs on a contract basis.  Chief Spence wouldn't last five minutes under Westbank leadership.  The first time she whined on about something and tried to blame anyone/everyone else for her band's problems they would boot her butt down the road  and replace her with someone who gets things done.

And they would sell her Escalade and force her to get some much needed exercise by walking.


 
Gong show is here in NB too.  They (mix group of Natives and rarely employed Acadians) are blocking the highway into Rexton, NB.  Everyone has to go through Richibuto (Sic) an Acadian town to get to Rexton on the back road.  They want all seismic testing to stop, they want no shale gas production AND here is the funny one, the local War Chief was on the radio claiming that sound waves from seismic testing make trees and pregnant moose sick. 

Anyway, the Premier, two days after saying he would not meet with lawbreakers, met with lawbreakers.  The outcome: a working group to study the issue while the blockade continues.  There should be a penalty in the transfer payments that says if you do not develop it, the Feds deduct dollar for dollar from the transfer payment.  Most people up there seem to believe that they should be given EI forever to do nothing.

The blockade was partially lifted when a drunk fell into one of the fires they lit in the middle of the asphalt and the ambulance could not get to him quickly!  Of course the highways folks collected over time on a weekend to remove the blockade.  The natives told the RCMP how they wanted the blockade to be restructured and the RCMP came along set up traffic cones just as they wanted them.  They are acting like the "Knights who neat" (Monty Python and the Holy Grail); "A shrubbery and perhaps a little picket fence and nice stone way, NEAT".  Imagine, RCMP, "purveyors to fine protests everywhere".

The big concern I find is the amount on non-native support they get, it seems every EI'er in the province wants to fight a great revolution to remove the nasty Tories.  It seems that it is OK to shut down a town to get your way, as long as it is someone elses town.
 
According to the UN we are not living up to our obligations and continuing to oppress these folks. Perhaps the UN will be supplying a peace keeping force from Europe.
 
Lightguns said:
According to the UN we are not living up to our obligations and continuing to oppress these folks. Perhaps the UN will be supplying a peace keeping force from Europe.

Just saw this on CTV. Money quote (paraphrease) was that Canadians have health and life expectancies of a developed nation, while natives have the outcomes of less developed nations.

Well, perhaps if they dropped the fiction of being separate "nations" and adopted the culture and values that make Canada a "developed nation" they might get the same outcomes as a "developed nation". Too much to hope for, I guess.
 
Thucydides said:
Just saw this on CTV. Money quote (paraphrease) was that Canadians have health and life expectancies of a developed nation, while natives have the outcomes of less developed nations.

Well, perhaps if they dropped the fiction of being separate "nations" and adopted the culture and values that make Canada a "developed nation" they might get the same outcomes as a "developed nation". Too much to hope for, I guess.

So whatever money we send to fund the UN  should be diverted to pay for our aboriginal policy sins.

The UN will understand.  People are the priority after all.
 
>while natives have the outcomes of less developed nations.

White men are stupid, you see.  When the resource of a resource-based town taps out, the people move out.
 
When a group gets so dependent on the status quo that they don't even want something better...

National Post

N.B. First Nation’s violent protesters fight jobs to preserve band's 85% welfare status quo

Christie Blatchford: First Nation band behind anti-fracking protest fights for 85% welfare status quo

In a brief on proposed welfare cuts filed with the Federal Court of Canada in March last year, lawyers for the Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick estimated that 85% of its people were on welfare.

The ignoble number added heft to their argument: The band, and other Mi’kmaq First Nations in the province, successfully fought off Ottawa’s attempt to equalize income assistance on reserves with that in the rest of province.

For instance, where a family of four in the rest of New Brunswick receives $908 a month, a family of similar size on a reserve receives $1,262, or about $300 more.

Judge Sandra Simpson granted the First Nations’ motions, at least stalling the implementation of the federal policy, on the grounds some native recipients would suffer irreparable harm if their cheques were to be slashed.

(...)
 
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