James Loney refuses to wear a poppy

Sault Ste. Marie's James Loney is making headlines again.

The peace activist, who was rescued earlier this year by British troops after 117 days of captivity in Iraq, is refusing to wear a poppy on Remebrance Day.

"[Military forces] believe in what they're doing," Loney told an audience at the University of Guelph yesterday.

"And more than that, they're risking their lives.... That is an amazing gift. And that's what we are trying to remember and think about on November 11.

"But having said that, I still can't wear a poppy," Loney said.

"And so for Loney, it's the poppy or peace," the Guelph Mercury reports in today's edition. "He chooses peace and wears a Christian Peacekeeper Teams button instead."

The newspaper quotes Maurice Ferris, president of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 234, as saying that Loney misunderstands the meaning of the poppy.

Loney told his Guelph audience that the poppy stands for military preparedness to wage war. "It says we have to be ready for the next time - vigilance," he said.

However Ferris from the Legion described the poppy as "the symbol of remembrance, to remember people who gave their lives."