Created  with
 db QwikSite Personal
Not for Commercial Use     

News More Info.

News More Info.
Ser65
Article Date01-09-2009
Record TYPENews
Article TOPIC 
Article TitleLegion Targets Ombudsman Report on Use of Poppy
Article Content-----Original Message-----
From: SeanK 
Sent: 27-Mar-06 17:17
To: xxxxxx@legion.ca
Subject: Legion Targets First Ever Ombudsman Report on VAC by Claiming Ownership of All Representations of a Poppy

Letter In response to Royal Canadian Legion Representative's Email:

Mr. Clark
 
Apparently the Legion has claimed ownership of every symbol and representation of every poppy ever created for remembrance in Canada. Please forward proof of this ownership to my email at your earliest convenience. I have cc'd a few individuals so that they may be aware of your claimed propriety over the flower and any of its representations. I would also recommend that this same warning can be given to the British and ANZAC legions as they use the poppy, and their websites can be accessed on Canadian computers..
 
Furthermore, all public, private and separate schools in the Western world should be notified that their students would be infringing on the Legions copyright of a plant should they draw such symbols around Remembrance Day.
 
Also, please inform all persons who plant poppies in their gardens that they may need to first contact the Legion. Perhaps this same warning could be sent through our troops in Afghanistan for the warlords and drug dealers cultivating poppies for opium processing near our Canadian soldiers. I am sure that enforcing this copyright infringement is far more important than such small matters as building democracy and social stability in such a far away country.
 
I have tried to contact and pass on this warning to Claude Monet about his famous painting of a Poppy Field before it is shown in Canada but he has yet to reply. Instead, perhaps the Legion representative can target the following Canadian Artists, Teachers and elementary school students for their infringement of the Legion Monopoly on the use any and all poppies used for remembrance.
 
http://www.tvdsb.on.ca/links/2004julindex.shtml
http://www.tolerance.ca/Societe_05.asp?Langue=2
http://www.occdsb.on.ca/~sel/newswave/hero/barker2.htm
http://www.karensclassroom.com/treasuretrove/gradefour/rdst.pdf
http://www2.sd38.bc.ca:8004/~gilmoreweb/NewsletterArchive/Newsletter13
http://www.artincanada.com/guystgodard/gallery4.html
http://www.poppyred.ca/theartist.cfm
http://www.porcelainpainters.com/hhumes.htm
http://www.artists.ca/gallery/mward.html
http://www.canadian-artist.com/GibsonStudios/
http://www.tvdsb.on.ca/links/2004julindex.shtml
 
http://www.bioteach.ubc.ca/quarterly/?p=64 (this one is a science journal but they should not be able to use objective science to avoid the law should they?)
 
One may wonder the reason why the Legion representative is targeting the first ever Ombudsman Report on VAC that hopes to ensure accountability and transparency for Veterans Affairs Canada. Is it perhaps that the Legion Leadership aspires to be officially declared the Ombudsman of VAC even though the public record shows the Legion does not have the professional staff, skills, training, and most of all as revealed by their email (below) in my opinion, the professional objectivity to be an independent body with real legal powers to monitor VAC. One wonders why the Legion leadership in its long and glorious history never came up with the idea of creating an independent Ombudsman Report on VAC.
 
Nevertheless, the leadership of the Legion appears, in my opinion, to claim moral authority over more than just poppies, as shown by their unquestioning support of the VAC bureaucrats in pushing the Politicians and misleading the Canadian public and the military to accept poorly written and soon to be implemented programs for the injured CF soldiers as contained in C-45 or the so-called Veterans Charter.
 
However it appears, in my opinion, and as the legion representative seems to imply below, removing a poppy from the cover of the report is far more important than actually reading the report or ensuring that disabled MODERN veterans are taken care of in the way that the Legion War Veteran Members were cared for. One might think that the Legion would be flattered or even supportive of any attempt to improve services for veterans as opposed to seeking petty revenge for a report which points out the failings of their leadership to ensure equal and fair treatment with respect to C-45 for all veterans be they members of the legion or veterans of WWII, Korea, Sinai Peacekeepers, Soldiers of the Medak Pocket, Gulf War, Rwanda, Afghanistan, etc.
 
This is not the first case of the Legion targeting individuals for the use of the poppy. The following CBC story reveals that the use of the poppy if taken from a foreign source is acceptable.
 
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/11/08/legion-bourque-poppy051108.html
 
If the Legion representative were perhaps a little more polite and diplomatic in his email before passing such rude and harsh judgment in my opinion on the first ever Ombudsman Report on VAC in Canadian history, then perhaps the Legion representative would have discovered that this poppy is from a database freely available to all Windows and internet users. I encourage the Legion to contact Bill Gates as well as the Yahoo CEO (search engine) to let them know that the Royal Canadian Legion is inconvenienced by this poppy infringement.
 
I await the legal references regarding your claims as well as the proof that the poppy named in your accusation below is being used for remembrance purposes. I also look forward to you proving that the poppy used in the report is not from a non-Canadian source, i.e. that it came from Canada. .   
 
Thank you and please keep up the fine work.
 
S Bruyea
Captain (retired)


Email from Royal Canadian Legion Representative:

Good Afternoon,
>
> It has recently come to the attention of The Royal Canadian Legion that
> the 2005 Ombudsman Report on Veterans Affairs Canada, published by
> V.O.I.C.E. has used an image of the Poppy on its cover.
>
> As the Poppy image in any configuration, when used as a symbol of
> Remembrance in Canada, is a trademark owned and controlled by the Legion,
> and as no permission for its use was requested or granted for this
> document, V.O.I.C.E. is asked to please remove it from this report and
> refrain from its future unauthorized use.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> S. Clark
> Secretary, Poppy and Remembrance Committee
>
> Dominion Command
> The Royal Canadian Legion
> 359 Kent Street, Ottawa, ON K2P 0R7
> Tel: 613-235-4391
> Fax: 613-563-1670
> Email: *****@legion.ca
Supplement 
Eval SOURCE RELIABILITYF -unknown
Eval INFO CREDIBILITY6 -not judged
COMPONENT 
SourceSB
Source URL 
Related External Link 
Additional Link 
Periodical Issue
Periodical No 
VVi Contributor 
ACTION GENERAL