CREDIT: Ottawa Citizen - Pam Champagne (right) is shown adjusting a poppy on Ernie Pelletier's blazer as the Bells Corners Legion poppy campaign was kicked off.
Posted on 11/03/2005 8:56:39 AM PST by NorthOf45
Vets win right to sell poppies in post offices
Steve Lambert
Canadian Press
November 03, 2005
CREDIT: Ottawa Citizen - Pam Champagne (right) is shown adjusting a poppy on Ernie Pelletier's blazer as the Bells Corners Legion poppy campaign was kicked off.
WINNIPEG -- Veterans have won a battle far removed from the front lines of Europe, Asia and Africa. They've gained the right to sell poppies inside Canada Post offices across the country.
The Royal Canadian Legion's annual poppy campaign got off to a rocky start in the northern Manitoba town of The Pas last week when veterans were told they could not sell the familiar red lapel pins inside the post office. "It's like somebody slapped me in the face," Duke Dutkiewicz, chair of the local poppy campaign, said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
"It's a Crown corporation. Don't the people of Canada own the bloody thing?
"That's what (veterans) went out and fought for, so we would have all these things."
Dutkiewicz said the post office had allowed poppy sales in previous years and the change of heart was a surprise.
Canada Post said it has always had a policy against letting charities set up on its premises, but the policy was not always enforced and some local offices have allowed poppy sales over the years.
"The overall practice of Canada Post has always been to say no to coin boxes on our postal counters," said spokeswoman Teresa Williams of Edmonton.
"If you say yes to one (group), you've got many, many others who feel that they are also legitimate organizations that should be allowed to have their coin boxes on our counters."
The Pas residents, including the mayor and New Democrat MP Bev Desjarlais, got behind the legion branch. Canada Post changed its mind, averting the potential public relations disaster of engaging in a public spat with veterans in the lead-up to Remembrance Day.
"Canada Post is not an ogre. We certainly do listen to the public," Williams said.
Canada Post president Moya Greene announced Wednesday that all post offices would be advised to allow poppy sales.
But the Crown corporation cautioned the change does not apply to other non-profit groups.
"It is going to be difficult, because how does a Crown corporation say yes to some and no to others?" asked Williams.
"This is an exception only for the legion. For the other 65,000 charities, we still have the practice of saying no."
Williams said Canada Post has honoured veterans in other ways, including special stamps.
The dispute has left Dutkiewicz with a bad taste in his mouth.
"It would appear that unless Canada Post isn't making a profit on (something), they're not interested," he said.
"That really got our feathers ruffled."
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Turns my stomach! It's not just pathetic to refuse them the sale of poppies, it's historically ignorant
It's not the embarrament, it's the fear of losing support. If a liberal could be embarrassed, he wouldn't stay liberal. What is more embarrassing than espousing outmoded ideas that never really worked, anyway?
Good point.
Do you have children?
Living with a three-year-old can give you tremendous insight into the way a liberal mind works.
Yes, and yes.
Hell, the average US citizen doesn't know what "Flag Day" means. They can only say, "I occasionally see it mentioned on a Calendar".
Don't bet on it. You'll lose. Canada doesn't have a Flag day. But every school kid knows about Nov. 11th.
My grandsons each have one of my grandather's caps . One has his spurs (dated 1916). And they know what he did. Their great grandfather I can't tell them about . He gets embarrassed.
You are sadly right. Even now what we give is essentially lip service to Remembrance Day. I truly believe the day will come when Winston Churchill and Patton will be regarded as warmongers. World War II remembrance will be re-written as simply a tragedy of misunderstanding.
Common sense can be a real handicap in public school these days. With liberal indoctrination and feel-good nonsense replacing most of the subjects kids shoud be studying, kids with a good grounding in reality don't spout back the platitudes like a liberal trainee should.
I'd say he is probably benefitting from an uncle who gives him more useful knowledge in an hour than he gets in a month of school, even if his parents aren't teaching him to ignore the brainwashing.
I'd say he is quite bright. My girls were perhaps a little older than 10 when they first started questioning liberal dictums, and they had Mrs Magslinger and I to learn from, not to mention some meaty discussions while we all stuffed envelopes at MIGOP HQ.
Good for your girls. My girl is approaching 8 months old. I will have to give her a discussion at some point that while adults usually know best, many will tell her things that are just pure nonsense. That she needs to think for herself and realize that what the world regards as wisdom is often foolishness.
My nephew has had it a little tough with a single mom and moving between too many schools too often. But he really does a great talent for understanding practical things in life. His mother has scolded me for playing violent video games with him, yet allows him to watch Sex in the City with her. I guess that makes sense since to liberals, exposure to sex is just fine, but violence should be shunned. My sister is coming around. She at least is seeing the light that fiscal socialism belongs in the Dark Ages. But she still sees Christianity through the eyes of Dan Brown and the US through the eyes of Chomsky.
The fact that the veterans had to take a stand against
something so stupid is a reflection of the times.
This never should have been an issue but in todays
"Canada" this type of thing is common and believe me
it will only get worse.
As Canada continues to let in an enormous amount of immigrants and minorities are becoming more and more
part of the infrastructure (eventually taking it over)
you will not see the customs and traditions from such
important events as remembrance day hold true perhaps as early as the next generation.
Tomorrows majority population will be the minority of
yesteryear while the majority of today will become the minority of tomorrow. It is quickly happening now.
Canadas official motto is "Bring me your huddled masses
and all the customs and traditions you had in your country
that you left because it was inept or you could not make a living there. Bring those customs and traditions and shove
them down the throat of the common citizen who has established roots and customs here for over a hundred years. Canada and it seems the liberal gov't that perpetually runs this gigantic land mass will see to
it that the rights of the minority and immigrant override the status quo". This is Canada.
Nobody should be surprised something like this happened.
The Canada of today will supply continuous cannon fodder
like this to the FREEP website. It will keep them in
business.
Or summed up in one word - multiculturalism. :)
Do they even have post offices anymore in Canada? In my town all the post offices are "postal agencies" and are located in Drug Stores or Hardware Stores. They have everything a post office has except the bad service.
Ask a large group of Canadian children, what Nov.11 means to them, and why is it significant to them. The same can asked to American children, regarding Veteran's Day. I would believe that their response from many of them would be.
Oh it is a day off from school!
As fewer citizens participate in their nations' military, due to force reduction, and it being a volunteer force. The impact of events like these, will be less in the future.
Nope . It might be a day off in the US but it isn't necessarily so in Canada. . Depends on the province . In BC , banks and government offices are closed , but almost everything else, including schools , remain open. In Alberta the schools are closed however in Ontario for example, a Remembrance Day service shall be held in every school on the 11th day of November or, when the 11th day of November is a Saturday or a Sunday, on the Friday preceding the 11th day of November.
The last paragraph of this web page, in their own words, makes almost the same statement as I do.
The challenge facing the Legion today is to convince young people and future generations of the need to remember those who have died in the wars to give us peace. The majority of Canadians don’t recognize the horror of the wars because they have never been exposed to it apart from what is seen on the media.
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