Thursday, September 26th, 2024.

5:45 - 8:00 pm ET

Lord Elgin Hotel, 100 Elgin St, Ottawa | St. Laurent Room

A book signing will take place after the presentation

Refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP for this exclusive and limited-attendance Event

Optimum Publishing International is pleased to announce the third edition of Sam Cooper’s bestselling revelatory book, Wilful Blindness: How a Network of Narcos, Tycoons and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West, will bb launched in Ottawa at the Lord Elgin Hotel. “a gripping read that you won't want to put down" (Benedict Rogers, Founder, Hong Kong Watch)

The book has an updated foreword by Sinologist and former Canadian diplomat to China, Charles Burton and a brand new afterword by Michel Juneau-Katsuya, author of the Sidewinder report.

Some Background on the book that led to the Hogue Commission on Foreign Interference

In February 2023, while at Global News, investigative journalist Sam Cooper released a groundbreaking report alleging that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had backed Han Dong’s Liberal nomination. Despite the gravity of the claims, the Prime Minister's Office and the Prime Minister himself appeared indifferent. During the Foreign Interference Commission, it was further revealed that Director David Vigneault had been pressured to alter his intelligence assessment on two separate occasions. Sam Cooper’s relentless reporting played a pivotal role in initiating this inquiry, but to grasp the full significance of these events, one must delve into his comprehensive book.

The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) later confirmed to Cooper that his reporting for Wilful Blindness had evidently registered concern in Beijing that Canada's United Front Works Department and the Chinese Ministry of State Security operations were exposed, and thus Chinese intelligence was tasked to respond directly to Cooper's work. However, the book also led to Cooper's continuing investigations, including clandestine meetings with 5 Eyes sources who helped Cooper bring forward the narrative that the US was concerned that Canada’s government and business elites associated with the Liberal party had effectively been captured by the Chinese Communist Party.

Speakers

Charles Burton, PhD

Michel Juneau-Katsuya, Author and Former Chief of Asia Pacific, CSIS

Kevin Vuong, Member of Parliament, Spadina-Fort York

MC Dean Baxendale