John Lennon and Yoko Ono travelled from Montreal to Ottowa on 3 June 1969.
This marked the end of their second bed-in for peace, which began on 27 May at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
Lennon and Ono had agreed to take part in a peace conference at the University of Ottawa. They arrived at Ottawa Train Station in the afternoon of 3 June, and were taken to the Chaplain Services building before the event began at 5.30pm at the Simard Hall.
Allan Rock let a 90-minute discussion with Lennon, Ono, broadcaster Bruno Gerussi, student Alexis Blanchette, and Canada Union of Students president Martin Loney.
Afterwards, Lennon and Ono briefly met students outside the hall, then Rock gave them a tour of Ottawa.
We called on Premier Trudeau to deliver a letter and some acorns. Shades of my childhood dreams of adventure: a fully uniformed Mountie stood guard outside the official residence! The great Liberal Leader was away. ‘We’ll see him again sometime,’ John said as he gave our offerings to the Mountie. ‘Don’t forget to tell him we called!’ ‘No sir,’ said the Mountie, hardly able to
grasp what he was seeing and hearing. Wasn’t this one of The Beatles? Jesus Christ! No, not Jesus Christ. Just one of The Beatles… though was there any difference now?
Fifty Years Adrift
At around 11.30pm, the entourage boarded a train from Ottawa Station to Toronto.