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Topic: Toronto Centre 2006
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lonewolf2
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 10589
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posted 07 December 2005 05:10 PM
Lets discuss the Jan 23 2006 election here.For thread on the last election go here The Bard said on Dec 7 2005: quote: The campaign in TC will be launched tonight, at 519 Church St. Michael is also going to be hosting coffee parties to discuss the issues in apartment buildings throughout the riding. I've got to say I got a flyer Shapcott which said Jack Layton: Putting People First (Clinton's slogan in '92). Please don't tell me the NDP will be using that slogan.
2006 Candidates: CON: Lewis Reford GRN: Chris Tindal LIB: Bill Graham (Incumbent) NDP: Michael Shapcott The population of the riding is among the most transient in Canada. Renters outnumber homeowners 73 per cent to 27 per cent. Average family income is $124,082 (the third highest in Canada) and unemployment is 7.8 per cent. The majority of jobs are in the service sector, including finance and insurance. More than 34 per cent of residents have university degrees. According to the 2001 census, 42 per cent of the population are immigrants, with a significant Chinese community. The riding of Rosedale was established in 1933. Its name was changed to Toronto Centre-Rosedale in 1996 and to Toronto Centre in 2004, when it added a small part of St. Paul's in the northwest and Toronto-Danforth in the northeast. Political History In 2004, Liberal Bill Graham defeated New Democrat Michael Shapcott to win the riding for a fourth term. Graham was minister of foreign affairs from 2002 to 2004, when Paul Martin made him minister of national defence. 2004 Voting Results: 30,336 Bill Graham ( 56.5 %) LIBERAL 12,747 Michael Shapcott ( 23.8 %) NDP Total Votes: 53,905 out of 85,165 on list Voter Turnout was: 63.3% [ 07 December 2005: Message edited by: lonewolf2 ]
From: Toronto | Registered: Oct 2005
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lonewolf2
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 10589
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posted 07 December 2005 05:34 PM
Yeah... just saw this comment on CBC's riding talk website... quote: When we have some real electoral reform happening in Canada, one of the first things to do is to change this riding's boundaries. Let those rich people in Rosedale just have their own riding and stop them from voting against the interests of the majority of working people and working poor throughout the rest of the downtown core!Bill Graham has done nothing to increase affordable housing in Toronto. Yes I realize the Liberals have made announcements, but where are the housing projects? I don't see anything being built! Which leads me to think it's just more liberal funding announcements, and announcements about announcements -- while the money for affordable housing, jobs, health care and education never actually gets to us! Posted by: Carol Auld | Nov 29, 2005 1:38:49 PM
I also remember in the last election helping a bunch of people register the homeless to vote. Elections Canada set up special stations at shelters and such. I think we got about 300 to vote (they got a meal too), but with the Liberal landslide, what can be done?
From: Toronto | Registered: Oct 2005
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jrootham
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 838
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posted 07 December 2005 07:23 PM
I remember the elections following the block ward decision. The first one the left put up one candidate (there were 2 spots) and knocked off 2 incumbents (3 were running). The next election we knocked off the remaining old guard (David Archer).The left has held the downtown ward ever since. With the exception of Gordon Chong winning 1 term when the NDP refused to support George Hislop because he was gay. The worst local gerrymander was St. Andrew St. Patrick for Larry Grossman jr. It went from the Islands up to Eglinton, getting narrow through the Annex.
From: Toronto | Registered: Jun 2001
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miles
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7209
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posted 07 December 2005 08:42 PM
quote: Originally posted by jrootham:
The worst local gerrymander was St. Andrew St. Patrick for Larry Grossman jr. It went from the Islands up to Eglinton, getting narrow through the Annex.
Larry Grossman was not a "jr". He followed his father Allan Grossman. Allan actually won one of the dirtiest elections in Ontario history when he beat JB Salsberg who was a member of the labour progressive party of Ontario in 1955. It should be noted that Salsberg was one of the key people who were helped create the Ontario Human Rights Code. He recalled his history of the banning of blacks, jews and dogs together and fought racism in general and anti-semitism specifically.
From: vaughan | Registered: Oct 2004
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the bard
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8375
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posted 08 December 2005 03:23 PM
Miles, remember that by 1955 much of the Jewish community in the Spadina-College area that had been Salsberg's base had moved uptown or to the suburbs, and that the Jewish community was rapidly abandoning its largely socialist past. It should be said though that Salsberg was respected because he was an independent thinker who critcized the Soviet Union.But to return to Toronto in 2005/2006. Did anyone attend the Shapcott launch? He seems to be running strongly (save stealing Clinton's slogan). But he under-performed last time. The NDP really seems to be strong in much of the SE part of the riding (east of Yonge, south of Bloor) but weak in the north and west (i.e. Rosedale, Yorkville, the Bay Street condos). I think the riding was one of the biggest victims of strategic voting in the country. That being said, it's an uphill battle.
From: Toronto | Registered: Mar 2005
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spatrioter
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2299
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posted 08 December 2005 03:54 PM
The campaign launch was very well-attended, with 200+ people packed into the upstairs auditorium of the 519. The fundraising appeared to be very successful.There were speeches from Cathy Crowe, Adam Giambrone, Pam McConnell, Gene Lara, Lorraine Tagalog, and others. The campaign office is at Parliament and Winchester - I haven't dropped in yet, but I plan on doing so. Michael noted that the NDP vote was more than doubled in this riding, and he got more votes in his first election than Bill Graham got in his first run. But the major highlight of the evening was Michael's partner Anne entertaining the crowd with singing.
From: Trinity-Spadina | Registered: Mar 2002
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aka Mycroft
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6640
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posted 06 January 2006 10:44 AM
Upcoming all candidates meetings below.People should go and ask Bill Graham why cabinet won't let the war resisters stay given that they deserted because they'd been ordered to shoot innocent civilians and/or because they realised that the war is illegal (ie because they share Canada's position). St. Jamestown Candidate's Debate Wellesley Community Centre, 495 Sherbourne Street Friday, January 6, 6:30 pm Sponsored by the St. Jamestown Safety Committee 519 Church Street Community Centre Candidates' Debate 519 Church Street Sunday, January 8, 7:30 pm
Saint Lawrence Neighbourhood Candidates' Debate King Edward Hotel, Sovereign Ballroom, 37 King Street East Wednesday, January 11, 7:00 pm Sponsored by St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association and the St. Lawrence Market Neigbourhood Business Improvement Area
Bay Street Corridor Community Association Candidates' Debate Alumni Hall, St. Michael's College, 121 St. Joseph Street, 4th Floor Thursday, January 12, 6:30 pm
Ryerson Student Union Candidate's Debate 350 Victoria Street, Room 144 in the Podium Monday, January 16, 2:00 pm
Christian Resource Centre All Candidates Meeting in Regents Park Location TBA Monday, January 16 Date, time and location have not been confirmed and may change. Please check back for updates
Cabbagetown Candidate's Debate Cabbagetown Youth Centre, 2 Lancaster Street Tuesday, January 17 (Time TBA) Sponsored by the Dopn VAle Cabbagetown Resident's Association, Winchester Parks Residents, Cabbagetown South Residents and the Old Cabbagetown Business Improvement Area
Rosedale Candidate's Debate Rosedale United Church, 159 Roxborough Drive Wednesday January 18, 7:30 pm Sponsored by the Governor's Bridge Resident's Association, The North Rosedale Ratepayer's Association, The South Rosedale Ratepayer's Association and the Moore Park Resident's Association
From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004
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raccoon
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7330
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posted 15 January 2006 11:24 PM
Well, Toronto center seems to have died off in the past few days. I seem to recall posting something here and it has dissapeared. I hope no moddlerater is stupidly trying to censor things here, especially information about candidates who are not what they pretend to be. I should have posted information about this afternoons all candidates at St.Lawrence market neighborhood. This was a lot smaller than the one at the King Edward hotel last week, run by the neighborhood snobs, and it was a good antidote tto them. people could actually ask questions. Hooray for Damien Brown of Market view coop for organizing it on five days notice. At the King Edward hotel they wouldn't let the communist candidate speak. Questions had to be submitted in advance. Eventually they relented and let him speak from a mike off to one side, in opening and closing remarks, but not respond to the questions. This afternoon we had the communist, the representative of the second oldest party in Canada, and the Marxist Leninist, right next to the big guys. Well, no. Graham did not show up. And I finally got to ask a certain NDP candidate whose initials are MS a question I have been dying to ask. "Define the term 'poverty pimp'" Zowie! Was his response revealing. His face got read and he started talking on and on about his life history. I could have said "I asked you to define it, not detail your career as one." Unfortunately only the commies on the left side of the table got the joke. I think most of the people in the back of the hall did not hear me ask it. I could also say about the proceedings that I was disapointed to have it affirmed by the green guy that Graham does indeed support Canadian participation the Yanqui missile defense system just to appease the US administration. Afterward I got into an intersting discussion with an old european lady who has been here since the 1950s and doesn't like the new conservativism. She asked me what a poverty pimp was and I was embarassed to realize that I did not have a ready one myself. So, here is one from my own web site, the page borrowed from "Bork" quote: The term "poverty pimp" is defined as a derogatory label for an individual or group which, to its own benefit, acts as an intermediary on behalf of the poor.
This page with its amusing description of poverty pimp behavior can be found at http://www.qaz.ca/povpimp.html and is raccoon recommended. My old freind hit the neo-con attitude on the head. It is the "I did it for myself" mentality. The people she knows who immigrated here in the 1950s can't understand that they were here in a golden age that will never come back. They were able to become midle class and own houses just on laboring work and they think this makes them superior somehow. I added that then they have kids who think they are entitled to this too, and when they don't get it because the ttimes are now harder, they think someone is cheating them. All these are receptive to the conservative argument that government is just taxing their money to give to the free loaders. It is like they think roads, schools, and hospitals happened by magic. But back to poverty pimpness. You know, there is room here for some debates and discussions about the ethicality of anti-poverty work. It is almost impossible for poor people to do anything for themselves; they are trying to survive. But who has the right to claim to speak for them?
Creating an anti-poverty movement requires some resources and some people have to put in some time at it. How are these people supposed to live? It is hard for any kind of organization to sustain itself by volunteer work. If you have paid people, there is always the potential for them to give themselves job security by exerting control over the whoever they are supposed to be accountable to. Maybe I will start a thread about this after everybody on rabble board gets over the election. TR
From: toronto | Registered: Nov 2004
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fern hill
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3582
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posted 15 January 2006 11:30 PM
quote: Originally posted by raccoon:
I seem to recall posting something here and it has dissapeared. I hope no moddlerater is stupidly trying to censor things here, especially information about candidates who are not what they pretend to be. TR
This is all I'm going to quote, even though the rest of it is full of idiocy. NOTE raccoon, you should know by now, babble does not delete or censor. Only in rare cases of potential legal bullshit do moderators shut things down. GAWD, I'm sick of this shit. Let's get the election done with and babble back to (ha) normal.
From: away | Registered: Jan 2003
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aka Mycroft
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6640
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posted 15 January 2006 11:52 PM
"racoon", I read the "poverty pimp" page you link to and sorry, but the list does not describe the NDP candidate at all - a guy who has worked tirelessly to get affordable housing built in this city and has probably gotten more housing built and helped more people than most elected officials without even being elected. You just get a bee in your bonnet whenever people on the left get tired of your bs and call you on your harassing and obnoxious behaviour. Even OCAP expelled you because of your behaviour, for heaven's sake. No doubt if John Clarke were the NDP candidate you'd be calling him a "poverty pimp" too because OCAP pays him $30,000 a year. Frankly, bs like yours plays right into the hands of the right who look for all and any excuse to cut social programs and dismiss anti-poverty activists. That you voted for a Rosedale Liberal like Bill Graham who has probably never set a foot in St. Jamestown or Regen Park without an escort because Shapcott or one of his supporters called you on your often offensive behaviour speaks volumes. If you called Bill Graham at 2am, or knocked on his door (even in broad daylight), or spoke to him the way you've spoken to dozens of people on the left, you'd have the RCMP on you faster than white on rice. [ 15 January 2006: Message edited by: aka Mycroft ]
From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2004
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the bard
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8375
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posted 16 January 2006 12:14 AM
Speaking of the riding, the Shapcott campaign seems less visible this time around. Of course Bill Graham has been INvisible!That being, I'm certain that the NDP will come in second here. Yes, the Tories are up nationally but this riding has a visceral hatred of any hint of social conservatism so they won't get more than 20%. Hopefully they can pull a respectable 1/3 of the vote or so. [ 16 January 2006: Message edited by: the bard ]
From: Toronto | Registered: Mar 2005
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raccoon
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7330
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posted 17 January 2006 01:48 AM
I have had a 'private' ie offline exchange with this 'mycroft' who posted above, directed at me. I thing I better post it for everybody to see. You will see why. quote: Well, well. What do you know about this harassing and obnoxious behavior that is supposed to get me arrested by the RCMP? What is the substance and exactly who did you hear it from? I expect a reply or I will ask these questions on the board. TR. I think you misunderstood what I said. I did not say you did anything that would justify involving the RCMP. What I was trying to argue is that you voted for Bill Graham because you don't think Shapcott or his people are showing you enough deference, yet, Graham is part of the Rosedale elite and if you ever even looked at him the wrong way you'd find the RCMP swooping down on you. IE you voted for someone who'd never give you the time of day outside of an election campaign. You didn't vote for someone who you felt disrespected you and instead voted for someone who would have complete contempt for you because of your poverty and class.
Mycroft, you know fuck all about me or what goes on with me and Shapcott and all the people like him in the poverty pimp/legal clinic/agency mafia network. What do you think people will do to protect six figure grants which they never have to account for? I have been thrown in jail twice on false charges. They have tried to get me evicted. I and people I work with are in a ringfence of slander thrown around us to isolate us. I have had death threats. I have civil court cases going on about all this. Shapcott has done all these things? According to who? Shapcott? These types of people are very good at claiming credit for everything but the sun shining. As for Clarke, I have a different description for him; red commander. He is someone who gets other people into trouble and leaves them hanging, so he can play 'revolution.' Whatever Bill Graham's faults, he does not pretend to be what he is not. You have not answered me about what kind of crap you have been hearing about me and from who. So I am posting this, as promised. I would suggest to the managers of this discussion board that it be left alone! Tim R.
From: toronto | Registered: Nov 2004
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Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560
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posted 17 January 2006 05:18 AM
Raccoon, you don't seem to have learned your lesson from the warning(s?) you've received about writing potentially libelous stuff on babble. And I just happened to come across a past thread from November where you did the same thing to Dan Wayne.You're outta here. I suggest you create your own web site and post that kind of stuff there. P.S. You're probably thinking of this post which was not deleted. However, I did (just now) take the liberty of deleting three or four words from one sentence of the post which could potentially be libel. [ 17 January 2006: Message edited by: Michelle ]
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001
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Cube432
recent-rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11755
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posted 17 January 2006 01:47 PM
[Hi, I'm new here, so I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting this article. I thought it relevant to this forum]Guns, crime and income disparity In study after study, relative poverty is a social corrosive Jan. 15, 2006. 03:16 AM LESLIE SCRIVENER TORONTO STAR For anyone worried about violent crime in Toronto, it's worth looking at a United Way report called Poverty by Postal Code. One of the scariest statistics in the 2004 study reveals the gap between the people in Toronto with money and the people without. It's the widest gap in Canada. Put simply, for every $1 the poorest families in Toronto have to spend, the richest families have $27. Income differences that big are troubling in themselves, but when linked to violence, especially homicide, there is even greater cause for alarm. Richard Wilkinson, a British epidemiologist, says at least 40 international studies (including one on Canada done at McMaster University) show "a robust relationship" between homicide rates and income inequality. But income inequality goes deeper than looking at who has more money — it roots around in the murkiest parts of our relationships with our neighbours. People who live in very unequal societies trust each other less, hostility is higher and there is more discrimination against minorities and women, studies show. Wilkinson, who is an expert in public health, first started looking at inequality to understand why some studies show that people are healthier in more egalitarian societies. The social environment affects our health, he found, with stress, social status and a feeling of connectedness as the most important features in contributing to a feeling of well-being. That is to say, we feel good if we measure up well against our neighbours. About social status, he writes in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, "We know ourselves partly through each other's eyes." In short, we care about how others see us and we crave respect. "Remember the stomach-tightening feelings of shame and embarrassment, almost self-loathing, when we feel we have made ourselves look foolish in others' eyes?" he asks. There's a great deal to suggest, he writes, "that the most frequent trigger to violence is disrespect, loss of face and people feeling looked down upon." With more inequality, people will have fewer or worse jobs, lower incomes, and feel deprived of the clothes, the cars, and the houses — markers of status — that others have, and that elevate them to a higher status. Vulnerable to the humiliation of relative — not absolute — poverty, they will be less willing to overlook incidents that appear to involve a loss of face, Wilkinson says. This link is seen more in crimes against other people than in crimes against property, he adds in an interview from the U.K., where he is a professor at the University of Nottingham. In the late 1990s, when Tony Blair's Labour government was keen to show that it was not coddling criminals, it launched a campaign that was tough on crime but also addressed the causes of crime. Violence rates went down a bit, said Wilkinson. But for the most part in debates about violence in the U.K., research about the causes of crime and income disparities hardly comes into the discussion. Last year there were 52 gun deaths in Toronto, nearly double the number in 2004. Income inequality is only one part of the complex web of factors that lead to increased violent crime, and it has come up rarely, if at all, in the current federal election campaign. At least 40 international studies show `a robust relationship' between homicide rates and income inequality `We should try to identify and preserve those uniquely Canadian social institutions that have contributed to our relatively low crime rate'
Looking at other predictors — poverty, inadequate housing, school failure, fatherless children — it is reasonable to think that Toronto could see the murder rate continue to rise. Add to this an unemployment rate among young blacks in Toronto almost double that of non-blacks and an expected boom in the number of teenagers — the teen population of Toronto is expected to grow by 21 per cent in the next five years. (In contrast, the number of children under 12 is expected to grow by only 6 per cent.) The number of teenagers is of interest because most violent crime is committed by young men in their late teens to their thirties. In Boston, the same demographic increase in 15- to 19-year-olds has created a slight increase in gun crime, Rev. Eugene Rivers said when he visited the Star's editorial board last week. Boston made a mistake when it cut programs that fund youth street workers, he says. "We're paying for it now," says Rivers, who was one of the architects of a strategy that brought a downturn in crime in his city. Through the late 1990s, the Conservative government of Mike Harris introduced cuts to education and social programs, which in turn led to the loss of 1,500 jobs at Toronto public schools — including social workers, child and youth workers, music teachers and lunch-room supervisors. "Things started going to hell in Toronto in the early '90s," says Dennis Raphael, associate professor of health policy and management at York University and one of Canada's leading researchers on the links between living conditions and health. "We're certainly not on top of this wave and coming down. If anything, thinking of the social policy environment, it's beginning," he says. But violent crime rate in Toronto is still far lower than that of U.S. cities. In Baltimore, for example, a city of 600,000, the number of murders recently dropped to 270, and that's considered a victory of sorts. These city-to-city comparisons are valid, says Scot Wortley, associate professor of criminology at the University of Toronto. Canada and the U.S. are similar societies, except for levels of crime and Canada's social welfare programs, public education and health care. Crime won't fall merely by introducing get-tough-on-crime programs, says Wortley. Building more prisons, longer prison sentences — the sorts of things voters hear from politicians during an election campaign — alone will not reduce violence. "By doing that you will not create social conditions to reduce crime," says Wortley. "Taking away social spending from the poor to imprison the poor, you'll create more crime." Canadians need to ensure that they don't lose programs that help bridge income inequality, he says. "Along with crime-fighting initiatives, we should also try to identify and preserve those uniquely Canadian social institutions that have already contributed to our relatively low crime rate." Toronto city leaders and clergy are trying to figure out what else, besides tougher laws, works to reduce crime, and how to measure that reduction. City councillor Michael Thompson, who along with Toronto's black clergy raised $20,000 (U.S.) to bring Rivers to Toronto, says education is one way to bridge income inequality. Other possibilities include job creation, more after-school recreation and sports, and involving clergy who know how to stretch the donations they receive. Toronto Parks and Recreation department is the largest employer of youth in the city, says Brenda Librecz who heads the department. Some 10,000 kids are on the payroll. To involve more young people, the department recently dropped its minimum age for employment to 14. But Wortley says there is little objective evaluation of what works and what doesn't work in municipal crime-prevention programs. "Midnight basketball leagues occupy kids and they are less likely to get into trouble. But kids are more sophisticated than we give them credit for. They can tell the differences between window dressing and real opportunities such as job training, mentorship and strong education programs. "If we can't provide real direction and support and hope, they are doomed for failure. They look around and see society is not fair. They don't believe the American or Canadian ideology that anyone can pick himself up by his bootstraps and succeed. They see the support that middle-class kids get." From his vantage point, Wilkinson says, "Look at income distribution and pay attention to who is right at the bottom... All this is about people feeling valued and needed."
From: TO | Registered: Jan 2006
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Reality. Bites.
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6718
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posted 17 January 2006 08:16 PM
quote: Originally posted by Stockholm: I could see both the Liberals and NDP going out of their way to recruit very high profile candidates.
Glen Murray?
From: Gone for good | Registered: Aug 2004
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