Red vs white: battle of poppies erupts in Canada

CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 8 (Reuters) Canada's war veterans are girding for a new battle, this time against peace activists they say have hijacked their long-standing floral symbol.

A store in Edmonton, Alberta, is distributing white poppy replicas that the Royal Canadian Legion said is a ''disturbing'' and ''illegal'' infringement of the red poppies worn on lapels since just after World War One to commemorate those killed in battle.

A Legion official said that Remembrance Day on November 11 is the only time of year they ask citizens to wear the poppies to pay tribute to the 117,000 military personnel who have died in conflict.

''It's something symbolic, which encroaches on a registered trademark, for one thing,'' Legion spokesman Rod Stewart said of the ''white poppies for peace.'' ''But it puts a political slant on the meaning of Remembrance Day and that's unacceptable in our eyes.'' White poppy distributor Michael Kalmanovitch, owner of Earth's General Store, said the version he's distributing was first produced in Britain in the 1930s to symbolize hope that humanity would move beyond armed conflict to solve disputes.

Kalmanovitch said he ordered 200 white poppies from the activist Peace Pledge Union in London. It his his third year of distributing them.

Legion officials have told him that poppies of any color are their registered trademark and the alternative ones are illegal.

But Kalmanovitch said he has no intention to stop distributing the white symbols. He said he wears both versions, and does not consider the white ones to be discourteous to the Legion.

''We're not saying 'or', we're saying 'and','' Kalmanovitch said. ''I do respect those people who went off and got hurt or killed in those wars ... but I hope we live in a society where everything can withstand criticism or examination.'' The tradition of wearing commemorative red poppies in Canada, Britain and other counties comes from the World War One poem ''In Flanders Fields'', a tribute to the fallen written by Canadian Lt-Col John McCrae, which begins: ''In Flanders fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses row on row...'' REUTERS DH BST0548