One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, racism, and death.

Omar El Akkad was born in 1982 in Cairo, Egypt, and spent his formative years in Doha, Qatar. At the age of 16, he relocated to Canada, where he completed high school in Montreal before pursuing higher education at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. El Akkad earned a degree in computer science before transitioning to journalism.

El Akkad’s entry into journalism coincided with the beginning of the War on Terror in the early 2000s, and this would profoundly shape his professional trajectory and worldview. For a decade, he worked as a staff reporter for The Globe and Mail, Canada’s most prominent national newspaper. During this period, El Akkad established himself as a conflict correspondent, covering several significant global events including the NATO-led war in Afghanistan, military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay, and the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt. His journalism also extended to domestic issues in North America, including coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, Missouri.

El Akkad’s journalistic work earned him multiple prestigious accolades, including Canada’s National Newspaper Award for Investigative Reporting for his coverage of a 2006 terror plot, and the Goff Penny Memorial Prize for Young Canadian Journalists.