"Letters to the Editor"
Seminar On World Peace
The Ottawa Journal

In response to John and Yoko's attendance and discussion at the "Seminar On World Peace" held at the University of Ottawa on June 3, 1969, three letters from back then were sent in by local residents that were accepted and published by the editor of The Ottawa Journal. The letters below present themselves as a historical point and counter-point assessing how sincere the Lennons peace discussions were during their campus visit. To date, these are the only three letters that I've been able to find regarding the local reaction over the event. Please note that the author of the third letter, that is, Mr. Hugh G. Doyle, improperly identified the date to the letter that he was responding to. The actual appearance of Mr. Jack Allan's letter was June 4, 1969 and not June 5, 1969, as Mr. Hugh Doyle alludes to in his letter.

First letter to the editor, The Ottawa Journal, dated June 4, 1969:

As you can see from above in this final paragraph, working with murky printed images from microfilm can sometimes be difficult to read, but what the person wrote was: 'The excitement will continue till the public realizes it is victim of a "peace stunt" that has little if any sincerity.'

The next two letters shed the Lennons in a more positive light regarding their discussions at the Seminar On World Peace...

Second letter to the editor, The Ottawa Journal, dated June 7, 1969:

Third letter to the editor, The Ottawa Journal, dated June 11, 1969:

Copyright by The Ottawa Journal, June 4, June 7, June 11, 1969. All rights reserved.

Researched by John Whelan, Chief Researcher for the Ottawa Beatles Site
April 14, 2001

Ottawa Beatles Site