Legal group that disinvited ‘Peace by Chocolate’ owner cancels upcoming event

By Canadian Press on April 10, 2025.

A national legal group has cancelled a dinner after it disinvited a Syrian refugee who became a celebrated Nova Scotia entrepreneur.

The Advocates’ Society said Thursday evening it will not go ahead with an end-of-term dinner on June 5, after it faced criticism from within its own ranks and other groups for cancelling a speech by Tareq Hadhad over comments about the war in Gaza.

The society said it “faced a moment where our leaders were tested in the application of our core values,” and fell short.

Last month, The Advocates’ Society rescinded its invitation to Hadhad, owner of Peace by Chocolate, after some members complained about a post on the social media platform X in which he referred to the “genocide” in Gaza.

Two top officials with the group — incoming president Sheree Conlon and treasurer Sheila Gibb — resigned from their posts, saying The Advocates’ Society had abandoned its core values of diversity and inclusiveness by disinviting Hadhad.

In a letter, The Advocates’ Society apologized to members who were made to feel unwelcome by the decision to cancel Hadhad’s speech.

“Our decisions are especially problematic where anti-Palestinian, antisemitic and Islamophobic racism are a reality and where the impacts of global conflicts are felt intensely by our members here in Canada,” it said in its letter.

Husein Panju, president of Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association, which pressed The Advocates’ Society about why Hadhad was disinvited, welcomed the decision to cancel the event.

“However, it is difficult to congratulate The Advocates’ Society for simply undoing an error of their own making,” Panju said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2025.

The Canadian Press