Last summer at INSPIRE, the Salvation Army conference and congress that celebrated the mission at work in Canada and Bermuda, Tareq Hadhad held members of the Army’s territorial communications team transfixed with his immigrant story during a luncheon session.

Tareq is a Syrian refugee who is now living a new life with his family in Nova Scotia as the founder and CEO of Peace by Chocolate. He is the recipient of the EY Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and RBC’s Top Immigrant and Entrepeneur of the Year awards. Tareq has been recognized as one of the Top 50 CEOs by Atlantic Business Magazine as well as one of their 30 under 30 innovators, and he’s a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee medal recipient.

Tareq’s had the privilege of meeting presidents and prime ministers, from Barack Obama to Justin Trudeau, but in 2012, he was just a medical student studying to be a doctor in Syria, and his family owned a successful chocolate business. Things changed in an instant, however, when bombs destroyed their home and chocolate factory, collateral damage of Syria’s tragic civil war.

Fleeing to safety in Lebanon as refugees, all they had were four walls and a ceiling above their heads. Existing in a stateless limbo, they could not even apply for Lebanese citizenship. Tareq’s family realized they needed to start a new life overseas, but where should they go? The family applied to 15 embassies, but all they heard was “We are not taking any Syrians. You are not welcome here.”

In January 2015, Tareq was volunteering with the UN’s medical relief efforts, helping refugees like himself get back on their feet. After a long day at work at a mobile medical clinic office, he realized he was too late to take public transportation, and his home was 40 kilometres away.

“We’re Going to Canada!”

As he wondered what he should do next, a Lebanese cab driver stopped his car and asked Tareq, “Son, do you want a ride?” 

“Yeah,” he replied. “Can you drive me to see my family? They are living 25 minutes away from Beirut along the coast.” 

“Of course!” the driver smiled.

“But,” Tareq said, “I don’t have any money on me. Can you come back tomorrow and I will pay you?” 

“No, it’s all right,” he replied. “I’m going there anyway. It’s the end of my day shift.” 

As they started their journey, the driver asked, “Where are you from?”

“Syria,” Tareq replied. 

They spoke briefly about the life he and his family had left behind, and Tareq could tell from the driver’s questions that he was a kind and generous man. As they drove, he looked at Tareq and said, “Are you OK? Do you need any help? You look nervous.”

There was something about the cab driver that made Tareq unburden himself of his worries and woes, and he told him all about his family and what they had gone through since the civil war.

“I’m trying to get my family out of Lebanon,” he concluded.

“Why don’t you go to Canada?” the cabbie asked.

“Why Canada?” a startled Tareq replied.

“Oh, I lived in Montreal for a while. It’s a beautiful place.”

Hope restored, Tareq immediately contacted the Canadian embassy and applied for a WUSC (World University Services of Canada) student visa. Frustrating months passed, but his perseverance was rewarded, and a new life began when Tareq was welcomed to Canada on a community-based sponsorship.

One night, he returned home and announced to his family, “I have sweet news for you. We’re going to go to Canada!”

A New Ending

Tareq settled in Antigonish, N.S.

“Canadians are very well known for being nice, but Antigonish is extra nice,” he says.

Tareq’s sponsors came to the airport to welcome him, and they carried flowers and signs that said: “Welcome to Canada, Tareq!”

Being welcomed this way made Tareq feel more confident to launch his life in Canada, and he was soon followed by the rest of his family.

But what to do now? The family decided to go back to their roots and start a chocolate company.

“Building the chocolate business again was a big thing for us because chocolate is our own way to be grateful for everyone here,” Tareq says. “That’s exactly why we were inspired to call the company Peace by Chocolate.

“We are trying with every piece of chocolate to reflect something about the culture that we broughtto Canada. That’s the mission.” 

Peace by Chocolate has produced and shipped millions of chocolate pieces across Canada and around the world. And they are giving back to the people that made them feel welcome in Canada. They are supporting their community by offering jobs and purchasing from the local community, with more than 55 employees now working at Peace by Chocolate.

“We are able to give back,” Tareq smiles. “And I’m pleased to report that the company that just started only a few years ago is now the third largest employer in Antigonish, and it is on the way to becoming one of the top five chocolate companies in the country within the next few years.

“My family feels safe. We are not refugees anymore. We are new Canadians,” he says. “As newly arriving refugees, our family vowed that we did not come to Canada to take. We came here to contribute and give back. 

“No one can go back and start a new beginning, but everyone can start today and make a new ending.” 

A Home by Choice

“I’m here with you folks because of that cabbie!” Tareq told the audience at INSPIRE. 

One kind word, born out of care, made all the difference to Tareq and his family.

What made the cabbie say what he said? Tareq never saw him again, but he has a possible explanation.

“In business, there’s the concept of the ROI: the return on investment,” he explains. “But there’s something much bigger than the ROI. It’s called the ROK: the return on kindness. The ROK is much more important than the ROI. 

“Return on kindness, paying it forward, not only for yourself but for others. If you are successful, it is your moral responsibility to lift others to success, to give others hope in the face of all of these challenges that they face. I think the cab driver was using his ROK.”

This is why Tareq respects and appreciates The Salvation Army. 

“Your slogan, Giving Hope Today, is absolutely the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard,” he says. “When I think about The Salvation Army, families like mine come to mind. You are families to those who are suffering and just waiting for a hand to help them find that sense of purpose and hope.

“Hope is the reason why I came here,” Tareq concludes. “I was looking for a place where I feel that I belong. Canada made it so easy for all of us to feel like we can belong to a new place, our adopted home.

“Syria is my home by birth, but Canada is my home by choice.”

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