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Company suing Liberals over Green Shift name acknowledges British used it before |
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Written by Tim Naumetz, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008 |
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OTTAWA - The head of a company suing the Liberal party for using the same name as the firm's to describe the Liberal carbon-tax plan acknowledges the British government used the same phrase for its own environmental program last year.
But Green Shift Inc. president Jennifer Wright said Tuesday she intends to press on with a legal fight against the Liberals over the confusion she says could be created over their use of Green Shift to describe the party's petroleum fuel-tax scheme.
Wright confirmed her firm had a record $1.5 million in sales of biodegradable consumer goods and environmental services last year, but said in an interview that success came after years of hard work and low pay, and the Liberal party is threatening the results of her work by using Green Shift for its plan to curb carbon emissions.
"If you look at my taxes, what Jennifer has earned, I paid myself $30,000 for seven years and even less," Wright said. "If you want to know the real truth I live enjoined with my office, because I live, work, breath, eat, sleep, Green Shift. So yeah, we finally hit it. Up until September 2007, there was myself and two young university grads."
Wright said when the dispute broke out that Green Shift was supplying the House of Commons with biodegradable cups, napkins and cutlery through a Hamilton-based caterer, Lewisfoods.
But a spokeswoman for Commons Speaker Peter Milliken said Monday the Commons has no Green Shift products, although it does use biodegradable ware from another supplier.
Wright, told of that, said she had been mistaken a week ago when she said products distributed by Green Shift were in Parliament, and that it was actually a branch of the Canada Revenue Agency in Ottawa that was using the Green Shift products.
"I know absolutely 100 per cent it goes into the Canada Revenue agency," said Wright.
Green Shift also has an invoice showing it sent sample products of sustainable cups and other products to the parliamentary restaurant last year.
The list of clients the company is willing to disclose is limited.
A list provided by Green Shift's bookkeeper, with Wright's permission, was limited to the Merchants of Green Coffee in Toronto, a restaurant called Baluchon, another called Friesen Restaurant in Toronto, and the World Wildlife Fund.
Wright said the firm also distributes its products through Lewisfoods and Sodexo, a giant international catering company.
The owner of Global Distribution and Warehousing confirmed, also with Wright's permission, that Green Shift has space in its Mississauga warehouse, although only since last year. President John Cosgrove would not disclose the amount of shelving devoted to Wright's firm, but he said "she does a healthy business."
"Wright said some of her clients have expressed a desire to stay out of the public limelight in the fight with the Liberal party".
"We have about 3,000 businesses that have been a part of this and right now, when we looked, actually we were thinking we should update that thing on the web site," she said. "We've got about 750 active."
Wright plans to hand-deliver the notice of a lawsuit seeking damages against the Liberal party Wednesday for allegedly appropriating the Green Shift trademark.
Wright said though the term "green shift" has been used before by the British Government and in environmental lingo, it was not used commercially before she registered it for her company in 2001.
"At the time we used the Green Shift there was one other use every recorded anywhere and that was a book written by someone, it was an architectural book," she said.
A Liberal spokesman has confirmed the party knew of the Green Shift company before Dion's announcement, saying someone contacted Green Shift before Dion announced the scheme last month.
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