Authors
Optimum Publishing is proud to represent a stable of the foremost experts on democracy & human rights in Canada and around the world.
Chuck Konkel
Chuck Konkel truly lived the world he wrote about. A decorated police veteran with over 40 years of service between the Toronto & Royal Hong Kong Police Force, Konkel arranged the first North American-Russian Policing Exchange to host seven Russian Generals in Toronto 1998. An organized crime expert active in intelligence work, Chuck executed search warrants in Moscow, was sent to Poland by the FBI to train the Polish Federal Police at the fall of communism, leading the charge to admit the nation into NATO. Konkel advised senior Polish officials, for which he was later targeted by Russian organized crime. His was dedicated to a lifetime of service, even through 55 rounds of chemotherapy. Before his death, he donated all proceeds from the novel to support a camp for children of injured Ukrainian soldiers
Who Has Buried The Dead?
Andrew Hale-Byrne
In 2007, he exposed the cult boarding school, known as Grenville Christian College, in the Canadian press. Subsequently, there has been an Anglican Church enquiry, Ontario Provincial Police investigation and an ongoing class action lawsuit. Indeed, Andrew attended Grenville in the 1990s and saw first-hand the horrific abuse that was inflicted on students of all ages.
Currently, he serves as a representative plaintiff and press officer for the Grenville Christian College Class Action. His book is the culmination of his research going back nine and half years.
Grenville
Wilful Blindness
Sam Cooper
Sam Cooper is an award-winning Canadian journalist, cited as one of Canada’s top investigative reporters. The director of The Bureau, his career began working for the Vancouver Province in 2009, where he started to investigate political corruption and real estate money laundering in Vancouver. Cooper broke the B.C. casino money laundering and “E-Pirate” story in 2017 at the Vancouver Sun and has now filed more than 50 exclusive stories on the widening scandal. Since winning the Jack Webster Award for student journalist at Langara College in 2005, he has won several prizes, including a Canada National Newspaper Award and a Jack Webster Award, for his reporting with the Vancouver Province on abuse of seniors in B.C. care homes.
The Beaver & The Dragon
Dr. Charles Burton
Charles was Associate Professor at Brock University, specializing in Comparative Politics, Government and Politics of China, Canada-China Relations and Human Rights. He served as Counsellor at the Canadian Embassy to China between 1991-1993 and 1998-2000. Prior to coming to Brock, Charles worked at the Communications Security Establishment of the Canadian Department of National Defence.
Lloyd Taylor
Lloyd Taylor is an entrepreneur, cyclist, and activist for Parkinson's Disease research as part of the Spinning Wheels Relay charity and Parkinson Canada, cycling coast to coast to coast and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and spreading awareness for PD. He and his fellow riders have been featured on CBC, CTV, CP24 and news outlets nationwide. Since his diagnosis, he has run with the bulls in Pamplona, cycled from the jungles of Chile to the beacons of Wales, and is the subject of a major documentary on his life with PD. He was featured as part of the Michael. J Fox Foundation’s 2025 Parkinson’s IQ + You Conference, and he was awarded the King Charles Coronation Medal for outstanding service to the Commonwealth.
The Kindness of Strangers
Ewan Whyte
Ewan Whyte is a writer and translator. He was written for The Globe and Mail, The Literary Review of Canada, and the author of "Desire Lines; Essays on Art, Poetry & Culture" as well as "Shifting Paradigms; Essays on Art & Culture". Ewan is also a poet, having published a collection entitled "Entrainment" and translated the works of the Roman poet Catullus.
Grenville
The China Nexus
Benedict Rogers
Benedict Rogers is a British human rights activist and journalist based in London. His work focuses on Asia, specializing on Burma, North Korea and Indonesia. He is a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Huffington Post and has appeared on BBC, CNN, & Al Jazeera.
Rogers is the co-founder of the International Coalition to Stop Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea. He is also the East Asia Team Leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide and the founder of Hong Kong Watch and a member of the advisory group of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and an advisor to the World Uyghur Congress.
Takedown
Patrick Brown
Patrick Brown is the 51st and current mayor of Brampton. He served as leader of the Official Opposition in Ontario and leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party from 2015 to 2018, and represented the riding of Barrie in the House of Commons from 2006 to 2015.
Garry Clement
Garry Clement has more than thirty years of policing experience and has received numerous awards and commendations for his work, including from the US Drug Enforcement Agency and the CIA. During his thirty-year career with the storied Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Garry Clement saw it all, from drug busts in small-town British Columbia to undercover missions among some of Canada’s most dangerous organized crime networks He has provided training and consulting services in financial crime prevention around the world and is now the chief anti–money laundering officer for Versabank.
Under Cover, Canada Under Siege
Dr. Hon-Shiang Lau
Dr. Lau (劉漢城), Ph.D., is an independent historian and scholar specializing in East Asian history, with a focus on Tibet’s contested status and China’s evolving territorial claims. His work has been published in leading journals and is widely cited by Tibet advocacy groups, academics, and policymakers. Known for his ability to bring clarity to complex historical disputes, Lau draws on both Chinese and Western sources, including many authoritative primary-source materials largely overlooked in mainstream narratives. Through public lectures and writings, he has become a prominent voice challenging authoritarian disinformation and restoring historical truth to overlooked peoples.
Tibet Was Never A Part Of China
Canada Under Siege
Michel Juneau-Katsuya
With over 40 years of experience, Michel is internationally recognized as one of our country’s foremost experts in international and national security and intelligence, and economic and industrial espionage. He began his career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) before transferring to the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). He has performed duties as Criminal Investigator, as well as Intelligence Officer in both Counter Intelligence and Counter Terrorism. He has held several senior management positions, including amongst them Chief of the Strategic Analysis Unit, Asia/Pacific.
When Politics Come Before Patients
Dr. Shawn Whatley
Shawn Whatley, MD, is a past President of the Ontario Medical Association, a Munk Senior Fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and has held numerous senior leadership positions in both acute care and community roles in Ontario. Whatley writes regularly for The Medical Post and serves on its advisory board. He has also written for The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Sun, and The Epoch Times. Whatley has served on many boards including the Ontario Medical Association and Canadian Medical Association. Dr. Whatley is a lecturer at the University of Toronto, Department of Family and Community Medicine.
Christine Van Geyn
Christine Van Geyn is a Canadian lawyer and bestselling author. She is the Litigation Director of the Canadian Constitutional Foundation and host of the national broadcast television program Canadian Justice. She is a podcaster, YouTuber and professional speaker.
Maple’s Garden, Pandemic Panic
Dolkun Isa
Dolkun Isa is a Uyghur activist based in Germany, who has been the third and current President of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) since 12 November 2017. He previously served as the General Secretary and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the WUC, respectively. He has presented Uyghur human rights issues to the UN Human Rights Council, European Parliament, European governments and international human rights organizations. The Chinese government has labelled him a terrorist for his advocacy since 2003.
The China Freedom Trap
What I Wish I Said
Jamie Watt
Jaime Watt is the Chairman and Founder of Navigator and a bestselling author. He specializes in complex public strategy issues, serving both domestic and international clients in the corporate, professional services, not-for-profit, and government sectors.
Widely regarded as Canada’s leading high stakes communications strategist, he currently serves as the Chancellor of OCAD University, and works on the board of University Health Network, the Literary Review of Canada, CANFAR and the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Unbroken
Rushan Abbas
Rushan Abbas is an Uyghur American activist and advocate, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Campaign for Uyghurs and was elected the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of World Uyghur Congress in 2024. Abbas became one of the most prominent Uyghur voices in international activism following her sister's detainment by the Chinese government in 2018. Rushan Abbas also serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board of Germany's Axel Springer Freedom Foundation and as a board member of the Task Force on Human Trafficking within the Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum.