Ahmad El-Maati - Biography

Biography

El-Maati was born in Kuwait to Badr El-Maati, an accountant, auditor and business consultant from Egypt, and Samira Al-Shallash, a teacher from Syria. The family moved to Beirut, and both Ahmad and his brother were enrolled in a Catholic school.

He immigrated to Montreal with his father and brother Amr in 1981, when he was 17-years old and took a job in a local factory. The family then moved to Toronto, when his mother and sister arrived.

Ahmad took college courses in electronics, before enrolling at Concordia University for two years where he studied statistics. He worked as a cab driver in London, Ontario and took lessons towards a pilot's license after a friend suggested there was money to make in air taxis between Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. He flew a Cessna trainer for five hours, before dropping the program due to his fear of heights. He received his formal Canadian citizenship in 1986.

In 1988, he traveled to fight with the Mujahideen in repelling the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but contracted malaria within two weeks of arriving and spent the next four months in a hospital in Peshawar, before returning to Canada. He later worked as a truck driver in Afghanistan, and drove an ambulance and cooked meals for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's army as it fought against the Taliban in Logar. In 1996, Amer came to Afghanistan looking for his brother, just as Hekmatyar's forces were retreating north through Salang tunnel. In November 1997, Ahmad deserted, meeting up with his mother and sister in Iran, while his brother traveled to Pakistan.

Upon moving back to Canada in 1998, he moved in with his father and had trouble finding work. His father's friend Ibrahym Adam offered a job as a mechanic's assistant in Montreal, but suggested he look towards driving long-haul transport vehicles. Ahmad used his salary, as well as a loan from his father, to graduate with his AZ license from a Scarborough driving school. He celebrated by taking the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in March 1999, and returned to take a job with Leger Trucking, driving lettuce from a farm in Salinas, California to Quebec supermarkets and McDonalds restaurants, earning about $750 for the thirty-hour drive. He decided to drive solo, as he could earn triple the money, and was hired by Motion Supply, who assigned him to drive with Highland Transport.

He later advised fellow Afghan veteran Mohamad Elzahabi to find similar work as a truck driver, and allowed him to accompany his own haul to the southern United States, where he dropped him off.