Green Party candidate Karen Burson will not be allowed to run for this federal election in the Hamilton Centre riding.
According to a press statement issued today by Norman Kearney, Burson's campaign manager, Returning Officer James Winn rejected Burson's candidacy application on Friday, May 8 because her nomination form EC20010 referenced an engagement letter signed by an auditor that was different from the engagement letter that was submitted with Burson's nomination.
The statement says Winn also rejected the second engagement letter because the signature was rendered in typeface rather than hand-written, and rejected the endorsement letter provided with Burson's nomination forms for reasons that were unclear.
The campaign team attempted to fax the corrected documents to Winn on Monday, May 11 - the deadline for nomination - but the fax would not go through.
Raise the Hammer has asked Burson's campaign for further details and is attempting to contact Winn. More to come as we learn more about this.
The role of a returning officer is to administer the Canada Elections Act and to manage the election process in their riding. The returning officer's decision on matters of nomination are final.
Returning officers are appointed for ten-year terms by the Chief Electoral Officer. Winn was appointed returning officer for Hamilton Centre on Dec. 1, 2010.
Karen Burson will not be allowed to run in the 41st General Election. We are at a complete loss to explain why James Winn, the Returning Officer, rejected Karen's application on Friday, April 8th. We made every effort to satisfy his arbitrary requests by the deadline on Monday, April 10th but he was uncooperative.
We complained to the Chief Electoral Officer and were referred to the Electoral Events Sector. We have since been advised that the Returning Officer has final authority over registering nominated candidates. There does not appear to be a relevant appeals process in the Canada Elections Act.
Because Mr. Winn chose to exclude Karen from the election, voters in Hamilton Centre will not have a Green choice on their ballots this May. But the voters of Hamilton deserve choice. Big media owners denied Canadians choice when they excluded Elizabeth May from the debates. Now Mr. Winn has denied Hamiltonians choice by excluding Karen from the election.
Mr. Winn's shocking decision is a personal loss for Karen who hoped only for an opportunity to hold public office and serve the residents of Hamilton Centre. It is also a loss for the Green Party of Canada. But most of all it is a loss for the voters of Hamilton Centre. Karen is intelligent, outgoing, and funny, and she gushes with enthusiasm for this City and its people. She deserved to be on the ballot, but because of the absolute authority of one man she will not be.
4) An endorsement letter signed by the leader or designate.
5) A second engagement letter signed by a different auditor.
Mr. Winn rejected 3) because 1) referenced 5). He would not allow us to substitute 3) for 5). He also rejected 5) because the signature by the auditor was made in typeface, not handwritten, despite this being a best practice accepted by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. He also demanded that 5) be dated, even though the first page stated in bold that the auditing services would be provided for the election to be held on May 2, 2011.
Mr. Winn returned 3) and 4) to us, said that they were unacceptable, and told us that he required a proper endorsement letter. He offered no explanation for why the endorsement letter was unacceptable. Karen attempted to leave her nomination papers with Mr. Winn but he told her that to do so would be "premature."
On Monday, our auditor made repeated attempts before and after the deadline to fax a third endorsement letter signed by hand to Mr. Winn, which he told them would be acceptable, but the fax could not complete.
Checks and balances are a fundamental principle of democracy. That none exist to limit the authority of the Returning Officer is disturbing.
It is standard practice for the Green Party of Canada to send both a letter of engagement from an auditor and an endorsement letter from the Leader. The auditor's letter is sent as a backup in the event that the campaign cannot find a local auditor. Because we did have a local auditor, we did not need the letter from the Party.
But when Mr. Winn did not accept our letter we asked if he would accept the Party's letter instead, and we would fill out a copy of page 1 of form EC20010, which had been provided with the Party's letter and had the fields for the auditor completed, to reflect the change.
For reasons that are unclear to us, that was also unacceptable.
Kearney also explained that the original copies of the nomination papers are not currently available to view, as they "remain in the custody of the returning officer".
Much as I would of liked a chance to vote for the Greens this election, it seems pretty obvious why her papers were rejected, if the letter didn't match up to the nomination form. Still sad though.
It sounds to me like this James Winn person made up his own rules. It would be interesting to see if there were any inconsistencies in any of the other candidates. I don't want to jump to conclusions before more details are know, but... if there is ANY wrong doing of any sort, I hope this guys pays for it BIG time. I know it probably won't do anything, but I've emailed Elections Canada to express my disgust.
The Spec couldn't get a hold of Winn either. Why is anyone allowed to not have to be answerable to anyone? Especially over something as important as an election.
"We have since been advised that the Returning Officer has final authority over registering nominated candidates."
I think this is probably false: if Mr. Winn was truly acting beyond the scope of his authority, and if you had the financial resources to press the issue, the court system would have final authority (all the way up to the Supreme Court, except when overruled by a Parliament invoking s. 33 of the Charter).
Also, it's unclear who in fact advised you. I certainly wouldn't take the Chief Electoral Officer's word on this: I'd take the word of someone at least at arm's length from Elections Canada. Preferably a lawyer.
After reading Mr. Kearney's addendum, I'm more suspicious of Winn's motives.
I presume it's impossible for a single invalid application to invalidate /all future ones/, legally-speaking -- especially since I doubt that Winn actually has "absolute authority" to do this (i.e., his authority likely only extends to those things he has authority over in the first place, and invalidating applications for this reason might be beyond the purview of his office).
If I'm reading Kearney right, since Winn refused to accept revised (and valid) versions of the application, my only advice at this point would be to find a lawyer to take on the case, and seek a court order placing Ms. Burson on the ballot.
Seriously, remedying these sorts of issues in our electoral process (due to malfeasance or not) is one of the most important functions of our courts.
So, Mr. Kearney: I suggest that the only point you should be pressing is that, if true, Mr. Winn rejected (or claimed he would reject) applications which were both /complete/ and /valid/. Everything else is beside the point, including whether prior applications were invalid.
(3) A nomination paper that a returning officer has refused to accept may be replaced by another nomination paper or may be corrected if the new or corrected nomination paper is filed with the returning officer by the close of nominations."
If such a correction or replacement was in fact refused by Winn before the close of nominations, heads need to roll. Seriously.
What an utter disappointment. I don't even know who to vote for if not Green! What kind of democracy is this?
This story smells awful to me. By my count there were at least three infractions, forms 3, 4, and 5 all had errors. You can call this nitpicking, but come on. It's Elections Canada. I would expect nitpicking.
Then they blame Winn for what are clearly their own errors, characterizing this as a personal decision, and then making a totally unsubstantiated claim about no checks and balances. And yet the entire basis of their claim seems to be that he should have accepted their forms because they abide by CA best practices, and that he was in some way responsible for rejecting the endorsement letter, and that the alternate auditor form should have been accepted because it had the date of the election, not the date required by the Elections Act.
Surely, part of Mr. Winn's responsibility is to help things go right. It doesn't seem like he helped the process very much. Surely he's more than a gatekeeper. I just left a message at his office and would encourage others to do the same. I also agree, that there should be some judicial review of this administrative decision.
Is this the same James Winn from the Hamilton Fire Department that denied a retail permit to sell fireworks for Diwali celebrated by local Hindus and Sikhs? The same one that provided permits for Catholic and Jewish festivals, but said it was unsafe for Hindus and Sikhs to have fireworks for their festivals? I agree with Bob Lee, this story does smell awful. But not for the same reasons. I quickly looked through the nominated candidates in Hamilton, and this Green Party candidate was the only one who isn't white. Is there any other candidate in Hamilton that made an application to their local returning officer who was not approved as a candidate?
Well it looks like a write in for me if it is not accepted, well I do not accept their reason for Karen Burson not being on the ballot so we are even!
One wonders with such a control freak as our PM that there is not some fix to not cheat but exploit any reson to deny other party candidates into the arena.
this actually makes sense. Rushed job makes sloppy work.
On the one hand I can't believe the way people are wide-eyedly accepting a very mixed up story. But then this follows pretty closely to the Green party line of being against the establishment, ideology, and rationality. We don't bring anything new to the table but we're going to change everything. Hate the status quo but don't know anything about it? Vote for us.
Too bad. I think she was going to win.
The very first Green party member to get elected, right here in the Hammer. Maybe in the 141st election but not likely in the 41st. This decision is going to no affect on the outcome of the election. I wager dollars to donuts that she will not have this problem next election, assuming of course that she can get through the disappointment and run at a future date.
I saw this article in today's Spec and went to email it to a Green friend out west, but it's absolutely buried at the Spec online. One has to use the search tool to find it, so essentially you have to know it's there - unlike the other "local" articles. This is insane, in addition to the debate debacle. how democratic is this? I can't vote for my preferred party, and we have a candidate? Procedural errors caused this? all her info was there. What about all the other zillion procedural errors that take place throughout Elections Canada? I like the pairvote idea; thanks so much, @tron.
It's the lead story on their Elections page, but for some reason the link to the Elections section has been removed from the spec's homepage and news page. Hopefully it's just a glitch and will be restored.
A suggestion for those who were planning to vote Green in this riding, but cannot - why not consider contributing to the party the same amount that your vote would have provided in public funds.
If one makes a contribution of $2.80, they would receive a subsidy of $2.10, equal to the subsidy that the party would have received from your vote. At the end of the day the cost to you is $0.70 - a little more than a stamp.
If half of last year's 3,625 voters in Hamilton Centre did so, that would raise another $5K to direct towards a riding where there is greater hope of actually electing a Green MP.
This town sure has some funny standards when it comes to which election-filing errors are considered unforgivable, and which get virtually ignored.
Winn has a lot of explaining to do.
Well theres lots of funny stuff going here .... I was told by a shop keeper i know and respect 'well you should conservative to stop these mindless elections' ie I should vote conservative to stop democracy .... I told her ... the longest running minority government was the one that just fell.
2/ mass shift to the other 'green' PARTY and people vote for Baldasaro.
I guess you'd be fine with scrapping s. 3 of the Charter, then. I mean, only the winners of elections deserve democratic rights, right?
Also, not all of us vote green. Your presumtion to the contrary is cute, though.
1. There is no such thing as a 'write in' ballot. Ballots that are marked in such a way to be anything other than an obvious vote for one candidate are rejected. There is no way to officially differentiate rejected ballots between, for example, blank ballots, ballots with two 'x's for different people, or 'write in' votes for Karen.
Deputy Returning Officers (DROs) have 'final' say over how a ballot is counted or rejected. Party nominated scrutineers can be present while the votes are counted at each poll. This is the only way 'write in' votes for Karen could be counted, unofficially, of course. Considering there are about 240 polls in the riding, it'd be difficult to get enough scrutineers (not sure if the Green party could nominate scrutineers in a riding they're not running in) even if we could get the word out to spoil the ballot with a 'write in' for Karen.
That said, votes cast early by special ballot ARE write-in only ballots (since regular ballots haven't been printed yet.) I don't mean the advance polls which I believe use the regular ballots, I mean special ballot. Basically, you are asked to print a candidates name on a piece of paper. If the name on the ballot is not obviously one of the official candidates, it is just rejected and again there is no official record of why a ballot was rejected. Ballots cast for Donald Duck (or a scribble) would be treated the same way as those for Karen. No one apart from a DRO or scrutineer would know the difference and even then only unofficially.
2. I don't think we'd be doing ourselves any favours by voting for Baldasaro en mass.
Maybe we make up our own ballots and send them to the Spec/CHML and/or Jim Winns.
You all see the vote brou-ha coming out of UofG?
CPC's clamping down there too.
Watch for more 'voter suppression' around about, especially against the GREENS, the ONLY party that offers Canadians a feasible option that bucks off the Harpie status quo.
I can't believe that Guelph news. Crazy.
I'm happy that Elections Canada made this decision. However, if the allegations that CPC candidate Burke's comm. director tried to interfere with a ballot box are true that is very serious. Either way I suspect the validity this poll will end up before the courts.
If it's true that someone grabbed the ballot box, the Deputy Returning Officer should, and could, have arrested them.
"Karen is among friends this weekend at the Green Party of Ontario's AGM in Muskoka. We have received an overwhelming amount of letters expressing outrage and sorrow. Rest assured, your thoughts and feelings will not go unanswered. We are preparing our next steps and we promise to defend your democratic rights.
This is a difficult time for everyone, and it is truly unthinkable that this happening in Canada. In spite of this tragedy, we take great solace in the fact that many people from within the Greens and from without are coming together to demand justice for Karen and the voters of Hamilton Centre.
We are grateful for your letters of support, and we will keep you updated as we challenge this injustice."
I'm optimistic that this is far from over.
Yes... because people often accept nominations when they don't want to run.
For what it's worth, I wrote a letter to David Christopherson, who -- despite the conflict of interest on the issue -- has a duty to act in the interests of his constituents.
Even though he's sure to win the riding anyway, the last thing Christopherson needs is an unnecessary by-election due solely to a returning officer bungling the duties of his office (by, say, rejecting valid applications for inclusion on a ballot) and a royally pissed-off 8.9% of his voting constituents.
I sincerely hope that others will write similar letters.
Good idea. I just sent him one too.
Not so sure he will win; was canvassing today for his party and lots of dejected voters out there. Christopherson is a spent force. Will this be the election to topple him? who knows.


Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by E.L., Sep 11, 2005.
They are checking out the day laborers in Houston. I should have them come to the corner of Beckham (271) and E. Locust St. since that is where a bunch of the illegals hang out each morning waiting for work. How is it that everyone knows where they are, but the Gov. turns a blind eye like they don't see them?
HOUSTON – Volunteers for a citizens border-patrol group will now be allowed by the organization to carry firearms while they observe day laborers in Houston.
Leaders of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas initially said they would only let volunteers use video cameras to film suspected illegal immigrants.
Now the group is offering those who have a concealed weapons permit a discount to join the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
The controversial group grabbed national attention in April when members patrolled the Arizona-Mexico border to report suspected illegal immigrants.
Prospective Minuteman members are usually charged $50, which is used to conduct a criminal background check. Since those with a concealed weapons permit have already undergone a background check and taken a handgun course, the fee can be waived, said George Klages, a spokesman for the Minutemen in Houston.
Volunteers carrying guns won't cause problems, Mr. Klages said.
"About 50 or 60 percent of our members are veterans," he said. "These are people who know how to handle a weapon."
Critics worry about the change.
"They only want people who are armed," said Juan Alvarez of the Coalition Against Intolerance and For Respect, a group that works to aid Houston day laborers. "It will incite violence."
Former Minuteman leader Bill Parmley said he's concerned about the Minutemen being armed, particularly in a city.
Mr. Parmley led the Minuteman Texas chapter but resigned last month, citing racism among members in the Goliad chapter.
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An often-overlooked feature of ASNA Visual RPG (AVR) is its BegUsing operation. This operation was added a couple of versions ago and allows for a more streamlined use of objects that provide a Dispose method—that must be called before the object instance goes out of scope.
The Dispose method is added to an object when it implements the iDisposable interface. This interface provides the Dispose mechanism for releasing unmanaged resources. While you may need to implement this interface in objects you create, it's not likely. iDisposable is only necessary when the object uses unmanaged COM resources. While custom objects needing iDisposable are rare, many .NET intrinsic objects implement this interface. For example, .NET's StreamWriter and its new ZipArchive object (that lets you programmatically zip and unzip files with .NET), both provide a Dispose method that must be called before the object instance goes out of scope.
Not calling Dispose on objects that need it can lead to out-of-memory and other unpredictable errors. Calling Dispose also almost requires a Try/Finally, which makes it doubly annoying to need to call Dispose.
How do you know if an object has a Dispose method that you must call before it goes out of scope? Most of the time, when an object needs Dispose method, it is an object that uses a low-level Windows operating system facility: reading and writing text files, working with memory streams, and many of the ADO.NET-related classes. Here is a handy blog post that provides a list of of the most common .NET objects that require Dispose. If all else fails, look at the class's documentation. For example, here the documentation for the StreamWriter class that shows that it has a Dispose method.
Beware, though, there are a few exceptions to the rule. There is the occasional .NET object that has a vestigial Dispose method that doesn't really need to be called. Crazy, huh? The DataSet has for many years caused endless arguments about its need for Dispose. If you can't sleep some night, read about that here.
You won't need BegUsing often, but when you do it's quite handy. Also, its presence makes it easier to translate C# examples to AVR.
BegUsing is intended only for objects that implement the iDisposable interface. Don't try to use it with AVR objects like disk files or DataGate DB connections that need a Close or Disconnect method. Continue to close those objects with their Close or Disconnect methods as you have been.


Harry Styles, onetime reported love of "I never chase boys" singer Taylor Swift, was widely reported to have been the target of Swift's brief, mocking adoption of a British accent before launching into a performance of her hit We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.
Whether Harry Styles — who is British and a member of One Direction — was the target of Swift's reference is not entirely clear, but seems likely. Often these he said, she said things play out in dueling interviews, where celeb exes try to continually one up each other with either refusing to rise to the bait or making veiled references — but if showbiz spies are to be believed, Styles plans to ignore the reference and indeed, the pair are never ever getting back together.
Harry Styles has not commented on the Swift dis from Sunday night's Grammys.


I often describe myself as a "Kool-Aid and Cookie Christian" because one summer when I was about 10 years old I heard that a church in our town was having Vacation Bible School. My family didn't go to church, but someone said they had Kool-Aid and cookies at VBS.
So I walked 15 blocks to church. We sang songs, learned about the Good Shepherd and the lost lamb – and yes, we had Kool-Aid and cookies. When Vacation Bible School was over, I kept walking to church. I joined a Sunday school class, later became part of a youth group, and accepted Christ as my Savior. The church became my family, and I was very active.
Years passed and life seemed too busy for church. Besides, I still prayed, read the Bible, and believed in Christ. I became a "do it yourself Christian." I never lost my faith, but it became a faith of convenience. I believed, but it was no longer personal.
I am a most ordinary person – and yet God chose to love me. He never took His hand off my life. He blessed me with miracles of healing, He shielded me from harm. He gave me words when I had no words and strength when I had no strength. I knew He was calling me back, but thought I could manage on my own.
However, the day finally came when I couldn't carry the burdens alone. I ached with memories of the loneliness and pain of my childhood. I was anguished by the wrong turns, bad decisions and foolish mistakes of my adult life. And now I was facing yet another family crisis.
Desperate and needy I went back to church. Did God know I'd be there when the sermon was planned for that Sunday? Of course He did! The message was from Matthew 20 about the workers in the vineyard. Those who came to work near the end of the day were welcomed and paid the same as those who came early.
I'd come early to work in the field but wandered away; I was the lamb who had strayed from the Good Shepherd. Now bruised and broken, I surrendered myself to Christ and found peace and joy in the miracle of His redeeming love.
I came to believe in Jesus Christ through KUMC and the Celebrate Recovery program there. I have answered God's call to me and, with the help of KUMC and others, have founded "The Living Harvest," a faith-based transitional housing ministry for those getting out of prison.


Hello, my name is Kendrick Lamar and I want to tell a story about my battles with depression. I was more Run 3 Krii or less a careless child ever since I could remember myself, going out with friends, drinking and having fun was the main source of spending time in my life, frankly saying, I never really thought about my future, what I wanted to be and what I wanted to choose as my life goal. It didn't really bother me, until I was 18 and witnessed death of my father, he always stood by my side, tried to help me in every way he could and it was an enormous tragedy in my life, after that I became apathetic, disinterested in everything surrounding my life, at that time I was studying in university but never really received anything from studying there, because I rarely attended lectures and didn't really think about my grades. It was at the age of 19 that I was diagnosed with depression, after my father's death I always thought that I wasn't going through normal phases of mourning, when at first an individual is feeling bad and time after time everything gets better and returns to its normal flow. For me it was different, it was like I was stuck in one phase and nothing really seemed to change, I couldn't move forward in my life.
To tell you the truth I was never fond of taking drugs as a way of medicating, I thought that the depression would go away eventually, I tried to get a job and function as a normal human being, but high levels of anxiety and depressing thoughts were always there to mess up my life, I couldn't last more than 6 months on one position, because a always felt antisocial and couldn't bond with people around me. This feeling was killing me from inside, as I grew and became more and more aware of the essential things one individual should accomplish in his life, I became more conscious of my problems but couldn't really find a way to break out of my problems, but life is a really strange thing, one can never guess from where and when salvation could come, my life saver was Salome, a girl from country Georgia , who helped me overcome my fears and depression and learn to make the most out of every situation.
I met Salome at an online game , apparently we both had passion for gaming, we started chatting around the game and eventually we exchanged our life experiences through the net, we became close and found out that we had lots of stuff in common. After 5 months of talking to Salome she offered me to fly to Georgia on vacations and spend the time with her. I'll tell you the truth, I was really nervous about that proposition, because after the depression I barely even left my town, not speaking about going abroad, but eventually I decided to give it a chance, because I really cherished my friendship with Salome and wanted to see her. I flew to Georgia on July 5th, Salome met me at the airport and to my surprise she told me that, she had all week planned for us to travel around Georgia. We started out next morning with an excursion around Tbilisi, capital city of Georgia, it was beautiful and breathtaking, the city which consisted of new and old architecture seemed to be a unique blend of new and old eras. The thing I liked the most was the nature in Georgia, in this country Salome taught me the joy of travel, which later became the antidote to my depression, I really couldn't have thought in the past that travelling would bring me such joy, but after the trip to Georgia it became a tradition to me, I travel as much as I can and it brings me enormous joy every time I witness something new.
When my vacation was coming to an end, the last thing that Salome did, was to invite me at a concert of his favorite Georgian musician Bera, she also told me that chances of me not liking his music was small, because she knew my taste in music and also told me that Beras music helped her to go through some harsh times. We went to the concert and Salome wasn't mistaken by a bit, I immediately fell in love with Beras music, his style of performing and the messages that were portrayed in his songs really made an impact on my life and pushed me to reevaluate things in my life. So the lesson from my story would be that you should travel a lot, you should listen to good music and try to get to know other people, that is the best cool math games you can do for yourself in bad situations.
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Copyright © 2019 Cristaria Blog.


Kids come to mind at Christmas. I am so excited to graduate, get done with this darned college so I can have me some kiddos! How can you not want kids at Christmas? I want to fill their stockings, and buy them presents, and make them things and decorate their rooms and make cookies with them, and sing Christmas songs to them and take pictures of them and cuddle them! So fun. I figure it all makes sense, since Christmas is about the most amazing baby that was ever born.
PS. Watch this video, and bask in the spirit of Christmas.


Microsoft recently filed a new patent that should prevent thieves from stealing your laptop. It will use a technology that will use emergency calls even without a SIM card. This technology should allow you to disable the stolen device from anywhere, no matter if the laptop has cellular connectivity or not.
At least some embodiments described herein relate to the restricted use of a cellular network to facilitate disablement of a device that is suspected lost or stolen. Accordingly, even if the device is not capable of general use of the cellular network (e.g., due to a physical authentication module, such as a subscriber identity module, being absent and/or due to a software restriction on cellular network access), disablement communications are still permitted across the cellular network. Accordingly, the device may receive a disable command from the disablement service over the cellular network, and acknowledge processing of the disable command to the disablement service also over the cellular network. Thus, efforts by an unauthorized possessor of the device to prevent disablement by removing the physical authentication module are thwarted. Likewise, turning the cellular service off using software settings at the device also does not prevent the device from being disabled via cellular network communication.
Microsoft plans to use "always-connected PCs" technology on laptops too. Consumers won't need any cellular service to be able to use this technology. It will use an "emergency call" feature that allows you to make an emergency call to a specific number even without a SIM card.
This patent should further improve protection for your mobile devices, but it comes with a price. With this technology, your device can be tracked even though you won't be connected to any cellular network.


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text:
FARRENC AND BRAHMS (Philadelphia Orchestra) Soloist Seong-Jin Cho dominates a night of high drama
Michael Fisher January 23, 2023 No Comments
It was just minutes into the performance, but the crowd at Verizon Hall was already overcome. The Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin had just carried the first movement of Farrenc's Symphony No. 3 to its booming conclusion. But in the wake of the last chord, the audience did not honor the custom of holding itself in reverent silence until the end of the symphony. In spite of ourselves and untold decades of concert hall precedent, we burst forth in applause.
And who could blame us? The Third Symphony is nearly two hundred years old, but only over the past decade or so has composer Louise Farrenc begun to emerge from a long stay in relative obscurity. It's likely that most of us have never even heard her work on Spotify, let alone live in concert. And Yannick, well known as an advocate for reviving the works of unjustly overlooked composers, keeps the first movement at a rolling boil from the moment the strings race onto the scene following a short, light intro by oboe & co. Yannick and the Philadelphia Orchestra appreciate the classical grandeur of Farrenc's score, and they lay into it with gusto befitting its long unacknowledged status as a masterpiece.
Not everyone applauded. The folks in the pricier seats at orchestra level were mostly silent. The couple sitting in front of me turned around and offered a look to the clapping masses. I couldn't tell if they disapproved, but they weren't smiling and they weren't putting their hands together. They left after intermission.
After the first movement applause died down, Yannick waited for complete silence to begin the second movement. And I do mean complete—he wouldn't raise his baton even if someone's pant legs were rubbing together way up in the 700 level.
And I can't say I blame Yannick, either, for wanting to give the music its space. The second movement of Farrenc's Third (marked adagio cantabile—slow and singing) starts off full of morning light and forest-bed calm. Even when the strings pipe up and flex their muscles, they do so with religious fervor, as if what they're singing is a passionate hymn of praise and gratitude. The key marking on this symphony—G minor—might direct us back to Mozart's Symphony No. 40, the "Great G minor symphony," and its lilting, tuneful second movement. One of the wonders of Farrenc's Third is how she directly confronts her historical competition. She knows that her work can stand among the giants of the canon, even if it will take a couple hundred years.
We applauded after the second movement, too. In fact we applauded after every movement of Farrenc's Third. Not a perfunctory applause, delivered out of a sense of obligation and ceremony. We couldn't help ourselves.
After intermission came the main event, Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2. (A century and a half after her death and Farrenc is still looking for top billing.) Soloist Seong-Jin Cho enjoyed a round of impassioned applause after each of the first two movements, and would've gotten the full Farrenc treatment if Yannick hadn't fused the final two movements so seamlessly together. If the goal of the No Clap Rule is to leave the music undisturbed and keep the tension intact, he's wise to do so.
Yannick and Cho find the emotional core of the Brahms in the third movement. It starts off lighter than air—music for a better-than-average sunset, swimming along on a lyrical melody led by solo cello. We wonder how the piano will manage to butt its head back into the frame; how can its percussive nature blend with the smoothness and crystal delicacy of the strings and winds? When Cho arrives on the scene, it's clear that he's now competing with the orchestra rather than being supported by them. The long, haunting intro has set the terms, and now Cho has to rise to them.
This isn't anything Cho can't handle. He's been dominating this whole time, and it's striking to watch him having to earn center stage back from his supposed backup band. The opening piano chords of the third movement are hesitant, apprehensive, like Cho is auditioning for a role in the show he's already in. The first cello, speaking for the orchestra, is unsure about this match. Both play sweet chords of longing, questions spoken to (or maybe past) one another. They're basically star-crossed lovers, each knowing that their union can only end in tragedy, or at best in some kind of bittersweet compromise.
And that's ultimately where we arrive at the end of the third movement, with the soloist and orchestra leaning on each other's shoulders, resigned to an uneasy truce. The tension between the two is at its most heart-rending here, and while the happy-go-lucky finale feels a bit like whiplash after that, I prefer this hard left turn into a happy ending for our lovers over cutting the tension with applause. The third movement speaks for itself, and its statement is best left hanging in the air.
Maybe some of my fellow-travelers at orchestra level left Verizon Hall baffled, wondering why everyone kept applauding between movements. I wonder why we don't do it all the time, and I wondered that even before the performance began.
Obviously the "rule" in classical performance about holding your applause until the end of the piece rather than applauding after each movement is not always observed—hence the scare quotes. I caught a PhilOrch performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 last spring under Nathalie Stutzmann that drew ecstatic applause after its molto vivace third movement. And especially in concertos, where you've got a virtuoso soloist shredding their ass off in a tux or a ball gown, it feels awkward and borderline rude to just sit there like nothing just happened.
For people like me, whose musical education was more Stratocaster than Stradivarius, sitting still in the presence of great music—or even good music, or even music that someone dragged you out to see that you're not really into but you wanna be a good sport—runs counter to nature. At the close of the Brahms, Cho got a well-deserved standing ovation and more curtain calls than I could count, plus an encore. It was a fitting close for a night of high drama and scene-stealing virtuosity. But I'm glad my compatriots and I didn't hold our applause until the end, especially during the first half of the performance. Louise Farrenc has waited nearly two centuries for her day in the mainstream sun. Why not treat her like what she always should've been: a rock star.
[Philadelphia Orchestra at Verizon Hall, Kimmel Cultural Campus, 300 S. Broad Street] January 19-21, 2023; philorch.org
BrahmsFarrenc and BrahmsLouise FarrencPhiladelphia OrchestraSeong-Jin ChoYannick Nézet-Séguin
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Zara and Kabir had their major tiff over the topic of Abidah, Zara gets Abidah's daughters call who seeks Zara's help for her mother.While Zara couldn't stop herself as she can't see Abidah in trouble and is not ready to stop and get justice for Abidah.Kabir is not happy as Zara is interfering in sharia board's matters although everything is settled and sharia board seems to be on Wasim's side.
Kabir asks Zara to stop doing what she is trying to do but Zara is not ready and reaches sharia board to prove truth.Zara puts her point infront of sharia board and this time with proof and thus gets victory, Kabir is shocked and takes shocking step.
Kabir apologize to Zara for what all happened, Kabir accepts his mistake and Shahbaz is irked with Zara victory.


text:
Die Schweizer Weinkönigin (französisch: Reine du vin de Suisse,  italienisch: Regina del vino della Svizzera) repräsentiert die Weine und den Weinbau in der Schweiz.

Die Wahl fand erstmals im Februar 2008 statt. Erste Siegerin wurde die diplomierte Winzerin Karin Rohner aus Stäfa am Zürichsee.

Organisatoren waren der Lebensmittel-Discounter Denner und die Zeitung SonntagsBlick, die erst einen Fragebogen verschickten und die Kandidatinnen aus fast allen Regionen der Schweiz nach einer Vorauswahl von einer fünfköpfigen Jury begutachten liessen:
 Karina Berger, Miss-Schweiz-Organisation, ehemalige Miss Schweiz
 Marco Castellaneta, Ringier-Pressesprecher, ehemaliger konsum.tv-Moderator
 Felix Christen, Önologe
 Madeleine Gay, Chefönologin bei Provins
 Chandra Kurt, Weinexpertin und Autorin

Bisherige Weinköniginnen
 2008/09: Karin Rohner, Stäfa (Kanton Zürich)

Weblinks
 Informationen über die Wahl auf der Website von denner.ch

Einzelnachweise

Weinkultur (Schweiz)
Weinkönigin (Titel)

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As reported in TB News Watch, a recommendation on the best method of cleaning up 400,000 cubic metres of contamination sediment in Thunder Bay Harbour is not expected until the end of 2019. There's enough industrial sediment (mainly pulp and paper sludge), containing mercury and other contaminants, on the bottom of the north harbour to fill 150 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Thunder Bay is located at the northwest corner of Lake Superior and has a population of approximately 110,000. As the largest city in Northwestern Ontario, Thunder Bay is the region's commercial, administrative and medical centre. It had been known in that past for it pulp and paper mills and as a key shipping port for grain.
A new working group that's revived efforts to manage 400,000 cubic meters of contaminated sediment in Thunder Bay's north harbour has targeted the end of 2019 for a recommended solution.
Two federal departments, Transport Canada and Environment Canada, co-chair the group which also includes the Ontario environment ministry, the Thunder Bay Port Authority and numerous other local stakeholders.
A new steering committee has been formed to examine three options for remediation presented to the public in 2014. A previous committee formed to look at those options went dormant, necessitating the refresh.
"At this point, we want to further evaluate those [three existing] options and to look at additional options over the next 14 months," said Roger Santiago, the head of Environment and Climate Change Canada's sediment remediation group in November of 2018. The group primarily works on cleaning up contaminated patches in the Great Lakes.
A previous steering committee was established 10 years ago, and remediation options were developed, but momentum toward a cleanup or remediation of the contaminated site slowed after that.
Impetus for a cleanup occurred earlier this year after Patty Hajdu, the MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North, raised the issue with her cabinet colleagues, the transport and environment ministers.
There's enough industrial sediment, containing mercury and other contaminants, on the bottom of the north harbour to fill 150 Olympic-size swimming pools.
The area was classified by a consultant and by federal experts as a Class 1 polluted site using the Federal Aquatic Sites Classification System. Class 1 sites indicate high priority for action.
A Transport Canada spokesperson told Tbnewswatch the working group will spend the next 12 months on technical and environmental studies, and will consult with the general public and with Indigenous groups as it evaluates a short list of management options.
The source of the contamination is historical dumping of pulp and paper mill pollution that resulted in mercury-contaminated paper sludge up to 4 metres thick lying at the bottom of the harbour. The sediment is contaminated with mercury in concentrations that range from 2 to 11 ppm at the surface of the sediment to 21 ppm at depth and ranging in thickness from 40 to 380 centimeters and covering an area of about 22 hectares (54 acres).
A 2017 Consultants report stated that the preferred option was to dredge the sediment and transfer it to the Mission Bay Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) at the harbour's south end. The dredging and transfer option was estimated to cost $40 million to $50 million, and was considered the best choice based on factors such as environmental effectiveness and budget. The consultants also looked at other options, including capping and excavation/isolation.
The capping option would consist of placing clean material on top of the contaminated material to contain and isolate the contaminants. A geotextile (a strong fabric barrier) will support the cap material. The budget for this option was estimated at $30-$40 million.
The proposed excavation option would involve building a dam to isolate the contaminated material from the water prior to removal. Once the dam was built, the area would be dewatered so that earth-moving equipment like excavators, loaders and bulldozers can be used to remove the material. It would then be disposed of in a secure landfill. A new on-site Confined Disposal Facility has been recommended or the use of the the existing Confined Disposal Facility at Mission Bay. The excavation option is estimated to cost $80-$90 million.
No matter what is decided upon, the 2017 consultant's report estimated it would take seven years to complete the clean up.