AS IT HAPPENED

NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN, 2002

Cameraman Brian Kelly films journalist Carol Off interviewing Asad Aryubwal for the documentary In the Company of Warlords. Off tells Asad’s story in her new book, All We Leave Behind.

TEXT SARA CATION

WHEN IT COMES TO HER CAREER,

As It Happens

“Women had a great deal of influence on changing how war and conflict is covered. We’ve moved away from the bang-bang of the front line to show how these crises affect real people.”

says with a laugh. “It’s a bit embarrassing now, but I always carried a bag with me, and at the end of the event, I’d slip some of the leftover food into it— I supplemented my groceries with stolen food.”

That didn’t last long. The world was in a state of

The assignment? A promise that CBC would buy the story if she could score an interview with politician Benazir Bhutto—the country’s future prime minister—who was in jail at the time. “It was scary. I thought, I’m in over

That leap of faith delivered much more than she bargained for. Upon arriving at her hotel in Karachi,

Carol Off, author and cohost of CBC Radio One’s As It Happens.

running across a tarmac amid chaos and dispatching details to several news agencies, covering a crisis that, in the end, left dozens dead. “A lot of people died,” says

It’s some thing that’s stayed with her ever since.

“Journalists all too often have their best moments

All We Leave Behind, which touches on the start of her career but focuses on the compelling story of Asad Aryubwal, whose life was in danger as

winning documentary, In the Company of Warlords. It’s a lesson she learned over and over again—not only that day in Karachi, or with Asad, but also in the crises she’s since reported on in places such as Kosovo,

NORTHERN BOSNIA, 1995

Off reports on the ethnic cleansing of Muslims near the end of the Bosnian War, a subject she explores in the documentary Flight From Bosnia and her book The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle.

KABUL, 2006

The Aryubwal family—Asad, his wife, Mobina, and their four children (Mujeeb, Hossai, Robina and Muhammad)—with Off in their home in Afghanistan’s capital.

Rwanda, Bosnia and Afghanistan while covering those hard-hitting stories that she had always desired.

on the Ivory Coast threatened her life while she was investigating child slavery in the cocoa trade.

NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN, 2002

Off poses with Asad and the documentary film crew in front of the Qala-i-Jangi fortress, the site of an infamous uprising in November 2001.

IN THE STUDIO

Recording an episode of CBC’s flagship evening radio show, As It Happens, with cohost Jeff Douglas.

“Journalists all too often have their best moments when other people are having their worst.”

to interview women in Muslim communities under purdah, which prohibits nonrelated men from interacting with women. “We had this tremendous access to the inner worlds of the stories we were covering,” she says.

We’ve moved away from the bang-bang of

real people—I think women had a lot to do with that change.”

Men seemed more comfortable talking to women, too—especially warlords. “Because they marginalized the women in their own societies, they thought what they said to me wouldn’t go anywhere—we were sort of harmless in their eyes. We could ask them

All We Leave Behind: A Reporter’s Journey Into the Lives of Others (Random House Canada) by Carol Off.

so then, you killed them all? Could you tell us about that?’ And they would just tell me things! I’d be thinking, I can’t believe you’re admitting this.”

As It

Happens funny, insightful and tough as nails—both then–Toronto mayor Rob Ford and then–immigration minister Chris Alexander have hung up on her. “Several politicians have hung up on me, actually,” she jests.

It’s safe to say working on As It Happens is

I do. I can’t say enough about what a joy it is to work at that show, being part of a national discussion,” she says, which is humble since, in many ways, she’s leading the national discussion—and women in journalism. READ THESE Check out these other acclaimed nonfiction books by Carol Off. 1. Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World’s Most Seductive Sweet 2. The Ghosts of Medak Pocket: The Story of Canada’s Secret War 3. The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle: A Story of Generals and Justice in Rwanda and Yugoslavia

WATCH THIS All of Off’s award- winning docs should be on your radar, but don’t miss the one that connected her to Asad Aryubwal.

In the Company of Warlords is the story of Washington’s complicity with Afghanistan’s most murderous criminals.