Man kicked off plane for wearing Trudeau blackface shirt
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Summary
A Nova Scotia man was removed from an Air Canada flight for wearing a shirt of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in blackface. Alberta is blasting Ottawa's immigration plan as, "reckless," warning it will worsen the province's housing and health care crises. Quebec is calling out the Trudeau government for failing to reject binding World Health Organization health regulations that could override Canada s pandemic response.
Transcript
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A Nova Scotia man was removed from an Air Canada flight for wearing a shirt of Trudeau
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in blackface after a crew member deemed it was offensive.
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Alberta is blasting Ottawa's immigration plan as, quote, reckless,
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warning it will worsen the province's housing and health care crises.
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Leslyn Lewis is calling out the Trudeau government for failing to reject
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binding World Health Organization health regulations that could override Canada's
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pandemic response. Hello, Canada. It's Thursday, July 24th, and this is the True North Daily Brief.
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I'm Isaac Lamoureux. And I'm Alex Zoltan. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.
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Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
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A Nova Scotia man was removed from an Air Canada flight after wearing a t-shirt of former Prime
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Minister Justin Trudeau in blackface, an image crew members called offensive. Daniel Greaves,
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a 62-year-old man, was en route from Edmonton to Vancouver on July 8th. While waiting on the
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tarmac, he was informed that the imagery on his shirt was, quote, offensive and racial. He said
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he flies frequently for work in northern Alberta and has flown wearing the shirt before, without
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incident. The shirt featured an infamous image of Trudeau wearing a turban with blackface paint.
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He told the flight attendant that the shirt was not about race, but a comment on the former
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Prime Minister. Greaves, who felt that such a request violated his rights, decided to remain
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seated and asked the flight attendant to present him with documentation that would justify why he
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would have to be removed from the plane and miss his flight. Greaves said the flight attendant claimed
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it violated the airline's dress code, comparing it to being told staff can't wear bikinis. When
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Greaves was subsequently asked to leave, he eventually walked off the plane on his own. He was met at the
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gate by various RCMP officers who told him he was being detained and could face a charge of mischief.
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In an audio recording that he took discreetly and provided to True North, Greaves can be heard asking
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an RCMP officer if he could re-board the plane if he turned the shirt inside out, to which the officer
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said he would ask the flight captain. However, according to Greaves, moments later, an officer
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grabbed the back of his elbow from behind him and he flinched, which resulted him in being picked up
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Then he put handcuffs on me, so I shut up and listened to them. They walked me down the stairs and let me go.
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I'm 63 in another week or so, 145 pounds. I'm not a big man.
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True North contacted the RCMP to verify whether there was any documentation of their exchange with Greaves.
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Upon arrival, officers met with an individual who was upset with being denied boarding on an aircraft.
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Upon being denied boarding, the individual was told to leave the secure side of the airport, which he did not comply.
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Contrary to Section 1391 of the Canadian Aviation Security Regulations.
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Section 1391 states that if a person has been given notice orally, in writing, or by a sign,
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that access to a part of an aerodrome is prohibited or is limited to authorized persons.
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The person must not enter or remain in that part of the aerodrome without authorization.
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Air Canada declined True North's request for comment.
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So, Alex, does Air Canada have a dress code and was Greaves' removal warranted?
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Well, Isaac, I'm not an expert on Air Canada's internal policies,
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but I do believe that Canadians have a protection under the Charter,
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which is effectively our constitution, to a freedom of expression.
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And I think that this would apply, or I believe that it would.
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because it seems like the individual was restricted from boarding the airplane
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based off of how an Air Canada staff member felt about the shirt versus other passengers.
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I mean, as a general rule, you would want to dress appropriately when you go anywhere, frankly.
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But anybody who's traveled on planes in Canada would probably acknowledge that Canadian air travel is terrible.
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Air Canada has a general policy of people needing to be clean, neat, and modest.
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An athletic pair, such as sweatpants, yoga pants, hoodies, shorts, tank tops, flip-flops,
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or running shoes are generally discouraged or off-limits when boarding.
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But I would also say that I've been on many flights in Canada,
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and I've seen many people dress very, very casually.
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So I think that this is really a constitutional issue,
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an issue of whether individuals have a right to freedom of expression or not.
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And I guess it might also qualify as an obscenity issue.
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Is an image of Justin Trudeau in blackface obscene,
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obscene to the point of being justifiably refused service to an Air Canada flight?
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I suppose that would be a question for lawyers.
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And I do hope that this goes to court, actually.
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I'd be really interested to see what the result would be.
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Yeah, just to touch on the obscenity aspect, Alex,
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if such an image is so obscene that it can't even be seen on an airplane,
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I just find that a bit ironic considering the headline images of all the articles
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about Trudeau in blackface is, of course, that very same image.
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So I don't think it would be justifiably qualifiable as such
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because if this is the image you're showing across the online airwaves, if you will,
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it doesn't seem to me that that justifies it being so obscene
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Alberta's immigration minister says the Liberals are ignoring provincial capacity
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this time by allowing 10,000 new sponsorships for parents and grandparents in 2025.
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Joseph Schcau called the move, quote-unquote, reckless,
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warning it will overload already stretched hospitals, schools, and housing in the province.
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Under the federal Liberal government, Canada's immigration levels have ballooned.
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Almost 2 million newcomers entered Canada last year alone
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without any regard for the provinces that are tasked with delivering frontline services.
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This latest move will only serve to further increase the unsustainable pressures
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on our hospitals, schools, and housing markets.
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Alberta Premier Daniel Smith, meanwhile, blamed the Trudeau government's immigration surge
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for driving affordability crises across the entire country,
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saying Alberta's own recruitment campaign was drowned out by Ottawa's open-door approach.
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is because if you just have too many people chasing too few jobs,
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The federal government blew it, and it's such a tragedy.
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One question asked at the ongoing Alberta Next panel was,
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Should Alberta take more control of the immigration system
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While polls at the panel were conducted after each of the six topic areas,
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the sentiment surrounding immigration in Alberta
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is at such a point that the host of the town hall in Red Deer
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considered the outcome predetermined and didn't even bother
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Scott was demanding that immigration targets drop to below 500,000 per year
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and that provinces get more control over who comes in.
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Immigration must be sustainable and aligned with provincial capacity and priorities.
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The federal government cannot continue to make unilateral decisions,
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So Isaac, with immigration driving record population growth,
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Do you think that the provinces can afford to keep up with it
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with Ottawa's record-level immigration decisions,
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especially when those decisions are made without provincial input.
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As you said, Alberta's Immigration Minister, Joseph Scow,
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to accept 10,000 new parent and grandparent sponsorship applications in 2025
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Scow called the move reckless, pointing to housing shortages
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and overloaded hospitals and schools as evidence that the social systems are buckling.
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And while critics often love to point to the fact
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that healthcare is the province's responsibility to administer,
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they often omit the fact that irresponsible immigration policies
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Meaning, if your population is increasing at unsustainable levels,
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overwhelming your hospitals, there's little a province can do.
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And the aforementioned foreign parents and grandparents
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are the type of people that you might see when you go to a hospital
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as the older you get, the less healthy you generally become
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and the more likely you are to end up needing services from a hospital.
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Some provinces, like Quebec, already negotiate separate immigration agreements
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a model that others are increasingly pointing to as necessary to manage capacity.
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However, without a formal mechanism to match federal intake
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with provincial serviceability, these calls for greater provincial authority
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Canada admitted over 817,000 newcomers in the first four months of 2025.
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And a federal memo recently showed that more than 3 million temporary residents
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are now in the country, equivalent to almost 19% of the private sector workforce,
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Keep in mind, this is only the tracked or known number,
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and many of the estimates provided are based on the presumption
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that visa holders with expired permits leave willingly.
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However, many do not, and instead opt to join the underground economy
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So without changes, provinces like Alberta are saying
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they risk losing control of key social infrastructure
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and the ability to deliver basic services effectively.
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Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis is warning that Canada's failure
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to reject amendments to the World Health Organization's
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international health regulations could undermine national sovereignty.
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Lewis said the Liberals allowed a key deadline to pass
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The binding changes will give the WHO authority
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over Canada's public health response during emergencies, Lewis warned.
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countries such as the United States and Italy have rejected these amendments
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Lewis also criticized the recent appointment of Dr. Howard Njou
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as interim chief public health officer citing his ties to the WHO.
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He currently serves as vice chair of the WHO Pandemic Influenza
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which Lewis suggested represents further alignment with the WHO.
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Canadians deserve a government that cares about protecting our national sovereignty.
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Unelected international bureaucrats do not know better than Canadians
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and should not have authority over how Canada governs.
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The public health agency website states that these amendments were agreed upon
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by WHO member states, including Canada, on June 1st of last year.
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The changes include implementing cross-border digital health documents
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similar to digital currency systems, already raising privacy concerns in Canada.
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Implementation is expected this fall when Parliament resumes.
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So, Alex, what specific authority does the WHO now have over Canada's health response
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and how could it impact the country's autonomy during future crises?
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So, it's a bit of a mixed bag answer because Canada is bound by international agreements
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and international organizations, much like consulting firms, have some sort of,
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I would say, soft authority and soft legitimacy,
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which is one of the reasons Canada spends so much money on consulting firms
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and also in acquiescing to international organizations like the World Health Organization.
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Canada is a state party to the International Health Regulations Order of 2005,
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and as such, it's a legally binding document under the WHO constitution,
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and these regulations apply to 196 countries, including Canada.
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The countries who it is not binding to are generally either pariah states
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But basically, the WHO, this is why it's a mixed bag answer,
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In other words, legally speaking, they cannot issue direct orders under Canadian law,
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and Canada retains full constitutional authority over domestic issues,
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So, I guess to answer your question, it's a bit of a mixed bag,
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and ultimately, how much authority the WHO has is determined by the opinions
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of the legislators that we elect to represent us in Ottawa.
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That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in.
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