What I and others would like to do this week is link any Canadian blogger in this post that wants to weigh in on this issue. It’s called a blog burst, and we’d like to do this during Veteran’s Week. This is not about getting into a battle with lawyers or The Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Committee.

If you post about the Canadian poppy online I’ll link. Hit the contact button at the top left and let me know.
Below is the image of the poppy the Legion committee asked Bourque News to remove from his website this weekend.
Let’s not make our posts defiance for defiance sake or disrespect of poppy committee members, blogs can provide an opportunity for the the poppy committee to hear what Canadian bloggers and their readers think.

Why a blog burst?

From The Royal Canadian Legion:

A writer first made the connection between the poppy and battlefield deaths during the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century, remarking that fields that were barren before battle exploded with the blood-red flowers after the fighting ended.

Prior to the First World War few poppies grew in Flanders. During the tremendous bombardments of that war the chalk soils became rich in lime from rubble, allowing ‘popaver rhoeas’ to thrive. When the war ended the lime was quickly absorbed, and the poppy began to disappear again.

Lieut-Col. John McCrae, the Canadian doctor who wrote the poem IN FLANDERS FIELDS, made the same connection 100 years later, during the First World War, and the scarlet poppy quickly became the symbol for soldiers who died in battle.

Bloggers speak up all over the place

Our Roots: Greenfield Park, QC + Fun Stuff
Colby Cosh
Jordon Cooper
Wendy Cooper
Big Story
relapsed catholic
Bene Diction Blogs On
Meg’s Musings
sean incognito
Three Squirrels in a Pressure Cooker
My Blahg

From Bob Butt, Director of Communications, Royal Canadian Legion, Dominion Command to Bourque News:

Hi, Sorry you’ve run into this but the poppy is a trademark of the Legion and anyone who wants to use it has to apply. Otherwise it would be all over the place.