Chan's Personal Blog

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. [...]

I'm going to have to side with the Legion on this one. I think it is somewhat opportunistic to hijack a sacred symbol like the red poppy, and sell a knockoff version of it to raise money from it during the Remembrance Day season. Furthermore, this is the time of year where the Legion is trying to raise money to support veterans who need meals, medical equipment, wheelchairs, etc. In addition, the Legion owns the trademarks to the Red Poppy. You can't use a similar image / icon to make money off of it! It'd be like opening a restaurant next to McDonalds, and calling it MacDonalds and have the golden arches as the official logo, but instead of a yellow "M", I'd use a green one.

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. [...]

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. [...]

“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.

Why Ottawa shut the door

When companies can manage to avoid paying corporate tax, both the companies and their investors are understandably happy. Governments, on the other hand, are not. They rely on corporate tax revenue to help pay the cost of running the country.

When former federal finance minister Ralph Goodale announced a review of the income trust sector in 2005, the Finance Department estimated that trust conversions cost the Treasury $300 million in tax revenue in 2004. The figure kept growing. A 2006 study by Jack Mintz of the Rotman School of Management estimated that the federal and provincial governments would lose a total of $1.1 billion annually in tax revenues once both Bell Canada and Telus complete their trust conversions.

Faced with the prospect of further "tax leakage," Ottawa felt it had no choice but to staunch the flow. In his Halloween announcement, Flaherty imposed a new tax on trusts. Corporations converting to trust status would have to pay tax on the income they distribute to investors. Existing trusts won't have to pay those taxes until 2011. He also cut the corporate tax rate by half a percentage point, effective 2011. Flaherty said that would "level the playing field" between trusts and corporations.