Former U.S. Vice-Consul Represents Mine Owners

The lawyer representing Stone Canyon, Mark Demetree and Affiliates, the new owners of Windsor Salt, is Brian Christensen. He is a principal at the Jackson Lewis Law Firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Christensen's biography says, "his primary focus is to foster relationships with labour that result in maximizing his clients' operational flexibility to achieve their profitability and efficiency objectives." "He brings a unique approach to resisting union organizing efforts that have resulted in an enviable win-loss ratio," it adds. "Brian's years of experience in [employment disputes] allow him to balance aggressive defence with practical solutions for potential resolution of disputes and claims," it says.

Clearly, the lawyer reflects the aims of the company to smash the union and force it to comply.

Prior to joining private practice, Christensen was part of the Judge Advocate General's Corps for the U.S. Navy where he was legal advisor to "an overseas base commander." Christensen also says he was, at one point, a Vice-Consul for the United States government but does not indicate where or when.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he officially worked for the Navy from 1993-1998 which was when Bill Clinton was the president of the U.S. and NATO's "new strategic concept" was adopted. This was the concept which gave the U.S. the mandate to give NATO a new lease on life after the end of the Cold War. During this period, the U.S. took military actions in Yugoslavia in advance of the U.S.-led NATO all-out bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999 and its subsequent dismemberment, in which to its eternal shame Canada participated. It was also a period of incursions into northern Africa (Somalia 1992-1993) in which Canadian peacekeepers also committed crimes, as well as the long period of enforcing crippling and illegal sanctions on Iraq in the lead-up to the U.S. invasion in 2003 carried out in violation of international law by a "coalition of the willing." 

After graduating from Brigham Young University's Kennedy Center in 1994, Christensen held a position in Sardinia, Italy with the U.S. Navy and was International Law Coordinator for the western Mediterranean area, an article from his Alma Mater informs. The islands of Sardinia and the neighbouring island of Corsica host U.S./NATO bases where NATO militaries run war exercises, test fire their latest weapons -- including those with radioactive material -- and generally treat the islands as their own territory to do with as they please. For many years, the local populations have been campaigning for the bases to be shut down and for compensation for the effects of alleged nuclear material that has been scattered around the islands for years. Sardinia is in the western Mediterranean and the U.S. uses it as a staging ground for U.S. wars of aggression in southern Europe and northern Africa as well as the Middle East. The Mediterranean Sea is where the U.S. Sixth Fleet operates and marauds.

Bullying, threatening and intimidation seem to be this lawyers' specialty and why he has been hired by the new owners of Windsor Salt to break the union. The Canadian working class has shown time and again that it is up to the task of defending itself in the face of union-busting activity. It is no mood to be bullied or threatened by U.S guns-for-hire.


This article was published in
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Number 10 - March 6, 2023

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10104.HTM


    

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