Ottawa Writers Fest One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This with Omar El Akkad

Omar El Akkad is an award-winning author and journalist. One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles the deep fracture which has occurred for Black, brown, Indigenous North Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse.

In the past twenty years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. This is El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West.