Optimum Publishing International is a Canadian independent international

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

, specializing in

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

civil and political rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

geopolitics Geopolitics () is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. Geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of State (polity), states: ''de fac ...

and

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

and

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

topics.

History

Optimum Publishing International was originally founded as the publishing arm of the

Montreal Star ''The Montreal Star'' was an English language, English-language Canada, Canadian newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It closed in 1979 in the wake of an eight-month pressmen's strike. It was Canada's largest newspaper until the 1950 ...

in the late 1960s. It continued to operate in the 1970s, even during the Star’s strike. Post-strike, the book publisher was acquired by Michael Baxendale, who led the publishing house until his death in 2017. Dean Baxendale, the son of Michael relaunched the company in 2018.

Controversies

Optimum has published a number of national and international authors. Due to the subjects covered in the course of publishing, the organization has been subject to pushback.

Patrick Brown

Optimum International Publishing was named in a suit over publishing a book by Canadian politician Patrick Brown. The publisher stood by the author based on their legal vetting of first hand witnesses and evidence that the content was indeed truthful. In a sworn deposition the person who made the accusations against

Vic Fedeli Victor Anthony Fedeli (born August 8, 1956) is a Canadian politician who has been the Ontario minister of economic development, job creation and trade since 2019 and chair of Cabinet since 2018. He is the member of Provincial Parliament (MP ...

confirmed her allegations and that deposition remains a matter of record in the Ontario Court. The case was quickly settled after the testimony. The case resulted in no settlement but an apology from Brown. The publisher’s insurer disputed its obligations for reimbursement of legal fees for the author. The insurer lost the case in superior court and all fees were paid to Brown’s attorney’s. In March of 2022 Brown settled his suit with CTV. The network corrected the story that lead to his resignation while admitting no fault allowing anchor

Lisa Laflamme Lisa LaFlamme (born July 25, 1964) is a Canadian television journalist, and formerly the chief anchor and senior editor of ''CTV National News''. She replaced Lloyd Robertson in this role on September 5, 2011. LaFlamme previously served as the ...

to continue her career without further embarrassment. In the taped audio recording Lisa Leflamme is made aware that she wasn’t underage and had no idea why she was being interviewed by her.

China-related censorship attempts

In 2021, the publisher's Twitter accounts were suspended following the publisher's release of two books that alleged Chinese government connections to

transnational organized crime Transnational organized crime (TOC) is organized crime coordinated transnational crime, across national borders, involving groups or markets of individuals working in more than one country to plan and execute illegal business ventures. To ach ...

and political influence operations in western democracies. Shortly afterwards Twitter suspended the publisher’s main

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

accounts, as well at 5 affiliated promotional accounts including those for Optimum imprint ''Hidden Hand'' and author Sam Cooper. ''The National Review'' stated that the suspensions may have resulted from efforts by the

United Front Work Department The United Front Work Department (UFWD) is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with " united front work". It gathers intelligence on, manages relations with, and attempts to gain influence over ...

of the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

to disrupt sales of the books.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Optimum Publishing International Book publishing companies of Canada Companies based in Toronto