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.
For entertainment lawyer Mira Choquette, who has seen similar cases, there are a few problems with the site.
“The language makes you believe that by buying these items, the funds go to the Legion and help support their programs,” she said. “Taking the poppy as their logo, as the thing that they are monetizing, that is also a form of infringement.”
The legion says it has contacted the RCMP. Meanwhile, their lawyer is trying to find a way to have the site shut down.
“The internet is wide open and you can scam just about anybody,” Irvine fumes.
He says this is the second time this year that they’ve had to deal with this problem. A similar site has already been shut down, but now LegionCa has popped up.
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