Olympic Games: Canada's athletes could have been dressed in Canada

It is unfortunate to discover how little is known about the Canadian textile industry. We wish to rectify this situation following publication in The Globe & Mail on May 2, 2008, of an article indicating that the Hudson's Bay Company had turned to Asia to manufacture our athletes' clothing at the Olympic Games because of Asian companies' know-how in organic and anti-mould fabrics. It was implied that Canadian companies lacked expertise. These allegations are completely false and give, in and of themselves, a negative and erroneous image of our country's textile industry.

Contrary to what was stated, the Canadian textile industry is on the cutting edge of new technologies in high-performance textile manufacturing-for sports, recreation, the army and health, to name but a few. We possess all of the expertise necessary to meet athletes' needs, and the technical specifications required to manufacture their clothing. Among the Canadian corporations with the desired expertise and capacity to manufacture the products mentioned in the article, are:

In Ontario: Ash City, Athletic Sportshow Inc, Barbarian Rugby Wear, Cannon Knitting, CVT Knitting, Fine Cotton Factory, Great Lakes Knitting, JR Sportswear, Meridian Knitting, Parker Bros, Quality Knitting, Regency Apparel, Roopa Knitting and Spring Knitwear.

In Québec: Bains Textile Mills, Beau Fab, Bulletin, Consoltex, FilSpec (thread supplier), Guillemont International. Les Tricots Interlock Knit Canada, Knitrama, Kute Knit, PGI Difco, Prestige Dyers, Modes King Fashions, Manoir Knitting, Textiles Monterey, Primotex, Parisian Knitting, Regitex (thread supplier), Rentex, Sport Maska, Stedfast, Taxitex, TekKnit, Tricots Liesse, Tricots Maxime, Tristar and Underwear Mills.

In Nova Scotia: Stanfield's

We sincerely hope that this update will enable the Canadian textile industry to participate in the next Olympic Games and to be in a position to sensitize numerous other government sectors, parapublic organizations and private companies to that fact that we have an avant-garde textile industry here in Canada. Our expertise, moreover, extends to different niches, such as transportation, health, recreation, the environment, the army and the industrial sector.

Our industry would be proud once again to build Canada's stature internationally.

Guy DrouinDaniel Castro

ADS - TexelLeigh Fibers

Gaétan DemersBruce Cochran

Bennett-FleetLincoln Fabrics

Guy PapillonBob Berger

Cégep de Saint-HyacintheMW Canada

Jacek MlynarekBill Spencer

Centre des technologies textilesPGI Difco

Keith BartlettMichel Rouleau

ClariantPréventex

François LapierreLisa Fecteau

PrésidentRégitex

Comité Directeur de la Carte routière

Sirio DeLucaJacques Côté

ConsoltexSolmax International

Rosette LabergeRob Kellock

CSMOITQStedfast

Ronald AudetLouis Dancause

FilSpecTitan Textile Canada

 Johanne LabergeBernard Rose

Hydro-QuébecTranstex Technologies

Nicolas Juillard

J.B. Martin

For further information: Dr Jacek Mlynarek, (514) 240-8919,

[email protected]

Source: www.newswire.ca