Re: white poppies
Quote:
Originally posted by victor eaton
Hello all
there has been talk over here about the poppy should now be white for peace personaly i think it stupid and misses the point,any comments on this white poppy .
vic uk.
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Hi Victor,
Here is an article below that talks about this problem ... Karmen
Quote:
Legion takes on activists in War of the Poppies
Veterans object to peace group selling white version of famous red emblem
KATHERINE HARDING AND DAWN WALTON
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
EDMONTON AND CALGARY — The Royal Canadian Legion is threatening to bring out its big guns — the lawyers — in a war with peace activists over poppies.
Veterans say the activists are unlawfully selling white poppies in a fundraising drive that violates trademark rights to the scarlet poppy, which they say belongs to the Legion.
Already, an Edmonton store owned by Michael Kalmanovitch that has been selling the so-called “poppies for peace” has been shipped proof by the Legion's intellectual property lawyer that the veterans association owns the image, regardless of the flower's colour, and has been asked to stop.
“If he [Kalmanovitch] doesn't, then we will proceed with further legal action,” explained Steven Clark, the Ottawa-based remembrance co-ordinator who oversees the poppy trademark for the Legion.
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The red poppy has been Canada's symbol of remembrance since 1921 and stems from Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae's famous poem, In Flanders Fields, which speaks to the fear that the war dead will be forgotten. Canadians, and others in countries around the world, wear poppies over their hearts leading up to Remembrance Day on Nov. 11 as a pledge that the deaths of military personnel, in Canada's case 117,000 of them, have not been in vain.
The tradition of the white poppy, which was the brainchild of the Women's Co-Operative Guild in Britain, dates back to 1993 as a tribute to peace. It has been exported to Canada over the years, but for the first time, the Legion's head office says it has been informed about the practice and it's not about to roll over.
Mr. Kalmanovitch, who has owned Earth's General Store in Edmonton since it opened in 1991 and has been selling white poppies for the past three years, said he has been contacted by a Legion official. However, he won't consider ceasing white poppy sales until he's officially been notified by the Peace Pledge Union, a British organization that took over from the Women's Co-Operative Guild to distribute the white poppies worldwide.
Mr. Kalmanovitch's shop, which offers environmentally and socially friendly products, has been selling the poppies for $2 apiece, with the proceeds used to fund the store's “activism” efforts around the city. Most customers, he added, are supportive of the white poppy drive. The shop sold the last of its 200 poppies yesterday and has ordered more.
“It has started a lot of healthy debate,” he said.
Marya Nyland, who belongs to an international peace organization, Women in Black, which has been distributing the white poppies across Canada for the last 11 years, said it's ridiculous that the Legion is considering a lawsuit, especially since the white poppy has been around almost as long as the red poppy.
“Peace is free. You never buy peace,” said Ms. Nyland, who lives in Victoria, explaining why the group gives the poppies away for free across the country.
The white poppies — about 12,000 are distributed every November in Canada — have always raised the ire of veterans, she said.
“I've had nasty calls from veterans. I've been harassed,” she said. “They feel that the red poppy should be it. Why shouldn't there be room for both?”
Ms. Nyland said most of her friends wear both poppies as a way to honour both the military and civilians who died in past wars.
“Remembering isn't enough,” she said.
But Harvey Shevalier, president of the Legion's Alberta-Northwest Territories Command which has 52,000 members, isn't swayed.
“It's offensive and it's disturbing that this white poppy would appear at this time of year,” he said. “To me, the white poppy is an insult to the veterans. The Women in Black organization, I think, are piggybacking on the sacred time of the year.”
Mr. Shevalier, who served in the army and worked with NATO and UN forces, said veterans aren't against peace, but Nov. 11 should not be used to make a political statement.
It also detracts from the Legion's primary fundraising drive, which raised about $15-million in 2004 (the most recent campaign it has calculated). The money is dedicated to the care of veterans and their dependants in need and funds programs such as meals on wheels, supplemental housing costs and medical equipment.
Instead, said the Legion's Mr. Clark, peace activists should focus their efforts on Sept. 21, which is the UN-sanctioned International Day of Peace. But even then, he added, white poppies would infringe on the Legion's trademark. He suggested they use a different symbol such as a dove.
“Nov. 11 is the day that we honour our veterans. We need to make sure that that does not get confused, combined or anything else with another campaign,” he said.
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