The Ottawa XPress, or rendered as (x)press on its cover, was an alternative weekly newspaper in Ottawa, Ontario.

The paper was launched in April 1993 by Jim Creskey, who also founded The Hill Times. In March 2001, the paper was sold to Voir's president and founder, Pierre Paquet. Xpress was the fifth paper to join the group, along with Montreal's Hour and the French-language cultural weeklies Voir Montréal, Voir Quebec, and Voir Gatineau, and was therefore part of the largest alternative newsweekly group in Canada. Its size changed from a 13.5-inch to a 15-inch tabloid in 2001.

As of January 2010, Cormac Rea was editor-in-chief and Melissa Proulx was managing editor. Proulx, previously Voir Gatineau's editor, was initially appointed interim editor in late November 2007.

The publication carried the syndicated Savage Love column until January 2010. The explicit content of this sex advice feature prompted the Loeb supermarket chain to discontinue distribution of the Xpress in its stores as of late 2005. Dan Savage said this action was another instance of a minority group trying to deprive a majority of people reading his column.

Ottawa (ⁱ/ˈɒtəwɑː/ or /ˈɒtəwə/) is the capital of Canada. It is the second largest city in Ontario and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, located on the north bank of the Ottawa River; together they form the National Capital Region (NCR).

Founded in 1826 as Bytown and incorporated as "Ottawa" in 1855, the city has evolved into a political and technological centre of Canada. Its original boundaries were expanded through numerous minor annexations and ultimately replaced by a new city incorporation and major amalgamation in 2001 which significantly increased its land area. The name "Ottawa" is derived from the Algonquin word adawe, meaning "to trade". Initially an Irish and French Christian settlement, Ottawa has become a multicultural city with a diverse population.

The 2011 census had the city's population as 883,391, and the metropolitan population as 1,236,324.Mercer ranks Ottawa with the second highest quality of living of any large city in the Americas, and 14th highest in the world. It is also rated the second cleanest city in Canada, and third cleanest city in the world. In 2012, the city was ranked for the third consecutive year as the best community in Canada to live in by MoneySense.

John Andrew Akpata is a writer, spoken word artist, musician, freelance journalist and federal politician in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Akpata is a graduate of Carleton University and holds a degree in English literature. He has hosted the show "Monday Night Scribes" on CHUO 89.1 FM since January 2004 and was a columnist for Ottawa Xpress from 2004 to 2006. He was named Ottawa's best writer/poet by the 2005 Ottawa Xpress Readers' Poll for his columns, freelance articles and spoken word poetry performances.

John Akpata was a member of Ottawa's first-ever poetry slam team to travel to Chicago to participate in the U.S. National Poetry Slam in 2003. The following year he was a member of the Ottawa Slam Team at the 2004 Canadian Spoken Wordlympics (now called the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, or CFSW) in Ottawa. At that festival, he placed second in the World Individual Finals. He was also the Ottawa regional winner of the CBC Poetry Face-Off in 2004 with his poem "Belonging". In 2005 he was the first Capital Slam champion and competed on the Ottawa Slam Team that finished third at CFSW 2005 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Akpata was the manager of the 2007 Ottawa Slam Team that participated in CFSW 2007 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Most recently, Akpata was once again a member of the Capital Slam team when they won the National Slam Championship in Ottawa at CFSW 2010.