Canadian Textile Journal – January/February 1998
By Douglas Cariou
By mid-March of this year, Canadians will be able to apply for
licenses
to legally grow hemp as a commercial crop in Canada.
A London, Ontario company has already developed the technology to
process hemp fibres specifically for textile applications.
Any takers?
In 1994, Geof Kime, President of Hempline Inc., with Joe Strobel, were the first Canadians to obtain a permit to grow hemp in modern times. They planted a 10-acre research plot in Tillsonburg, Ontario, and since then Hempline has been working to develop hemp as a cash crop in the tobacco-growing regions of Ontario. The company is currently working on a process to separate hemp fibres from the stalk of the plant, and Mr. Kime expects to have material available for spinning “in the next few months.” His company is also developing harvesting machinery for the hemp plant.
Various sectors of the textile and apparel industries have expressed an interest in hemp fibres and fabrics, including textile manufacturers, fabric suppliers, fibre processors, apparel designers, garment companies and apparel retailers (Le Château, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, C.A.L.I.C.O., among others). Industrial textile products include twine, rope, tarpaulins, nets, bags, carpets, geotextiles, automotive interiors and fibre-based building materials.
Hemp industry can thank the Canadian Senate
In addition to being the first company to obtain an experimental permit to grow hemp, Mr. Kimes’ company is currently, he believes, the only business producing hemp fibre for the textile industry. He was also instrumental in convincing the Senate to re-examine Bill C-8, the legislation which enabled Health Canada to set up a licensing system for a commercial hemp industry in Canada. “At that time,” he says, “the definition of cannabis as a regulated substance also applied to paper and textiles made from hemp. As Bill C-8 was coming to a close, I sent a letter to the Senate, since it had already been approved by the House of Commons, to amend the definition to exclude the mature stalks and fibre from being defined as a regulated substance. The THC [delta-9 tetrahydracannabinol, the active ingredient causing intoxication] tends to be in the leaf or flower material.”
“When I made a presentation to a group of senators who were dealing with the bill, I passed around samples of raw stalk and fibre. They were rather surprised when I then told them they were in possession of a narcotic substance.” Mr. Kime’s presentation resulted in the Senate, under an initiative spearheaded by Senator Lorna Milne (who also pressured Health Canada to stick to its original timeline of having final regulations in place this year), to send the bill back to the House for modification, specifically declaring that hemp fibres and stalks would no longer be considered ‘controlled substances’ under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The modifications were accepted, and the rest, as they say, is history. A mechanical engineer who grew up on a farm, Mr. Kime’s company receives a dozen or so inquiries every month most of them from American firms including a company using hemp blended with other natural fibres to make home furnishing fabric. Nevertheless, he is optimistic about the prospects for a Canadian hemp industry. “We would like to develop a domestic value-added textile industry in this country,” he says, “and we would like to do business with other Canadian companies.”
New fibre separation process
The fibre separation process Mr. Kime’s company is developing is “not too different from the process for separating flax, but quite different from the process for separating cotton fibres.” The process separates the stalk from the long bast fibres (which can then be used for any one of several spinning processes). “We expect to have material available for spinning in the next few months,” he said.