Canadian Legion says website selling poppy-themed items, fraudulent

Dec 08, 2017

By Phil Carpenter

Veteran Tom Irvine is really upset these days.

He’s worried about a website that the Royal Canadian Legion concludes is passing itself off as the Legion.

“But, in actuality, it’s not,” says the first vice-president of the Legion. “It’s fraudulent. For us the only real Legion webpage, for anybody that’s concerned is, poppystore.ca, our web store, or legion.ca.”

The website in question is called legionCa, which Irvine says is obviously done to create the impression that it does represent his organization.

“It’s not Legion material, it’s as simple as that.”

Also, the Legion’s mailing address is on their website is 86 Aird Place. The new website lists its address as 868 Aird Place.

Global News tried to contact LegionCa but there was no reply to emails. Two of the four phone numbers on the website didn’t work and there was no answer at the other two.

But that’s not what really annoys Irvine.

“As a Canadian, I’m very disturbed at what they’re doing. “As a veteran, it really annoys me. I’m disgusted that they’re taking money out of veterans’ pockets.”

Veteran Andrew Fenrich agrees and can’t understand why anyone would sell poppies for profit.

“The Legion uses it every year as a fundraiser, for veterans. I mean, this is just appropriating that.”

Furthermore, Irvine and the Legion say it’s trademark infringement. The site advertises a variety of items for sale with the poppies printed on them, within the context of Remembrance Day. That’s a problem because the Legion says they own the trademark of the poppy, as it relates to Remembrance Day.

https://globalnews.ca/news/3906414/canadian-legion-says-website-selling-poppy-themed-items-fraudulent/