TORONTO, Feb. 25 (JTA) A proposed boycott has forced organizers of a health trade show to cancel the appearance of a writer known for spreading anti-Semitic myths.
After three sponsors of next month’s “Total Health” show vowed not to participate, the organizers announced that they had rescinded the invitation to author Eustace Mullins.
Jewish officials had been stunned to learn that Mullins had been invited to speak on medical and financial monopolies at the show, which is scheduled to have some 70 speakers, as well as 200 exhibits and demonstrations.
Mullins has written books in which Jews are depicted as controllers of the global economy who slaughter Christian babies for blood rituals a centuries-old accusation known as the blood libel.
“Mr. Mullins is well-known to the leadership of the Jewish community as someone who has a long history of anti-Semitism of the worst kind, dealing with blood libel and Holocaust denial,” said Keith Landy, chair of the Ontario Region of the Canadian Jewish Congress. “So we certainly have been calling upon the sponsoring organization to un-invite him.”
The Congress presented the organizers of the event with roughly 100 pages of what it calls “incontrovertible evidence” of Mullins’ anti-Semitism, but received no response.
John and Libby Gardon, founding members of the Consumer Health Organization which is organizing the show initially refused to withdraw the invitation, explaining that they have known Mullins for many years and regarded him as a “respected author.”
“Do you think we’re going to cancel a speaker?” John Gardon told a newspaper reporter. “It’s excellent publicity. People will come to hear his side of the story.”
But the Gardons changed their minds after the three participants Noah’s Natural Foods, Baldwin Natural Foods and The Big Carrot said they would withdraw from the event.
“Their actions helped to ensure that this racist and bigot extraordinaire would not find a platform in Canada,” Landy said.
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