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the war does, is it just makes you
lose your belief and your sense of humanity. It makes you lose the ability to comprehend the idea that, yes, there are caring people around the world, [and] we matter to them. Because the only thing that war does well is make us numbers on the screens.”
By the end of the third week in
their new community, the Hadhads were already looking to give back to
it. But it wasn’t only because they’re
a hardworking, chocolate-loving
family that does good by doing good business. “Although we have faced overwhelming support, one of the community members came to me and said, ‘Welcome to Canada, Tareq. I saw your picture yesterday on the front page
of the newspaper, but why did you come here to take our jobs? I said, ‘We did not come here to take jobs. We came here to create them.’”
Two months after the Hadhads arrived, a few Antigonishians attended a potluck and tried the first Peace by Chocolate products made on Canadian soil. Then Hadhad brought his family’s treats to farmers’ markets and, by late winter of 2016, the first Canadian Peace by Chocolate storefront opened, employing community members and fellow immigrants, who welcomed about 100 people waiting for the doors to open that first day. “It meant a lot to our family that, yes, there are people who care about what we are making, and they want to be a part of it. They
want to be a part of that success.” Success sums up much of Hadhad’s
life since then. He now spends much of his time traveling and talking to international audiences, sharing
his story of survival and hearing heartbreakingly similar tales in return. But he says the greatest achievement of his life was when he officially became a Canadian citizen in 2020. And for
all its awfulness, Hadhad looks at the war as a turning point that sent him
on a journey to where he is today. “Something that kept me going is a quote from a wonderful Canadian that said, ‘Canadians are born everywhere. It just takes them a little bit to get here’. I really keep that very close to my heart, because that’s my story.”
He thinks of family, community — and chocolate, which, for the Hadhads, is kind of all the same thing.
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