The new chocolate and hazelnut bar carries the word 'peace' in the Indigenous language of the local Mi’kmaq people. Other languages will feature too. (Peace by Chocolate)

Chocolate maker from Syria unveils bar with Indigenous word for peace

The “Peace by Chocolate” company founded by Syrian refugees in Canada has produced its first chocolate bar and has given it an Indigenous name for peace. Until now, the chocolates produced in the tiny eastern town of Antigonish, Nova Scotia came only in boxes.

The bars of milk chocolate and hazelnut are called Wantaqo’ti, the Mi’kmaq word for peace. “Nothing is nobler than spreading our message in the mother tongue of this land we are on and we call home,” said founder Tareq Hadhad in an email to the Canadian Press (CP).

Syrian chocolatier Tareq Hadhad greeted children at the door of Peace By Chocolate’s newly-opened factory in Antigonish, N.S. on September 9, 2017. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press)

‘Peace is beautiful in every language’

By the end of the month, Hadhad  plans to produce more bars, each labeled with the word peace in one of 20 languages, including other native tongues and languages like Arabic, French and Mandarin.  “Peace is beautiful in every language,” he wrote in the email to CP. He added the company is working on other wrappers profiling leaders of global peace movements.

The bars will be sold online and at stores in Atlantic Canada and Ontario. Some of the proceeds will go to local and Indigeous organizations and the Special Olympics Canada 2018 Summer Games, to be held in Antigonish.

Hadhad was studying in Syria to be a doctor, but quit when his father’s chocolate factory was blown up in 2012. He and his family spent three years at a refugee camp in Lebanon, then were accepted into Canada as part of a wave of Syrian refugees that now numbers more than 40,000.

The chocolates, by the way, are delicious!

Categories: Immigration & Refugees, Society
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