Honourable senators, today I rise to share with you a story of loss, courage, community, vision, partnership and hard work, the story of “Peace by Chocolate” and the Hadhad family.

The brutal civil war in Syria has displaced 12 million people, half of its pre-war population. Over 1 million have been injured and 465,000 have died. British poet Warsan Shire said, “no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.”

For the Hadhad family, Damascus had become just that — as dangerous as the mouth of a shark. The family saw their business, a thriving chocolate factory exporting all over the Middle East, bombed in an air strike in 2013. Like many of their compatriots, the Hadhads sought refuge in Lebanon.

In late 2015, Tareq Hadhad was the first of his family welcomed by the volunteers of SAFE, Syria-Antigonish Families Embrace. In early 2016, the rest of the family arrived. Today, eight Syrian families are making Antigonish their home.

Within months of arriving, the Hadhad family decided to start a chocolate factory as a way to earn a living and create employment for others. That chocolate factory, which started in the family’s kitchen, selling at the local farmers market, expanded into a small driveway shed built with muscle and materials provided by the community. It now operates in a facility provided by the Hadhad family’s national business partner, Nova Scotia’s Sobeys corporation.

The appropriately named Peace by Chocolate business produces assorted chocolates including rainbow-wrapped Pride Bars, Peace Bars, Forgiveness Bars with slogans such as “Kiss & Make-Up,” and even Easter bunnies. Tareq Hadhad, the company’s CEO who is with us today, says, “It is not where you are from that is important. It is who you are.”

He and his family have been demonstrating who they are by creating local jobs, sending donations to the victims of the Fort McMurray wildfires and, more recently, by announcing plans to hire 50 refugees, mentor 10 refugee start-ups and help four refugee businesses access new markets.

Later today, at 5:30 in the senators’ lounge, Senators Omidvar, Boehm and I, together with the Refugee Hub of the University of Ottawa, are hosting an event to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. Come enjoy delicious snacks from Yasmin Syrian Cooking. Please join us as we celebrate Tareq Hadhad, Peace by Chocolate, Canada’s 327,000 privately sponsored refugees and the thousands of volunteers who have contributed to this important Canadian nation-building story. Shokran, wela’lioq.