A group of pro-Arab pickets demonstrated at a hotel in London, Ontario, in protest against the 27th conference of the Central Region of the Zionist Organization of Canada. The demonstration was believed to be the first such picketing of a Canadian Zionist meeting.
The dozen pickets said they represented the Canadian Friends of the Middle East. Most of them had come from other parts of Ontario for the demonstration. Their leader, James Peters, a lecturer at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, explained the group’s activities during a television interview. He argued that Zionists should be barred from holding conferences just as Toronto neo-Nazis were prevented from making public addresses.
A heavy rainfall led the pickets to disperse several hours before the arrival of the Zionist delegates. Mayor Stronach, in his greetings to the conference, apologized for the “discourtesy” and disavowed the pickets.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
