Popular Sudbury restaurant goes public with unhappiness with their location
Damascus Shawarma in Sudbury nearly closed after social media outcry over landlord disputes. The shop's owners, Syrian refugees, cite numerous issues and stress but vow to stay following an outpouring of community support. Madison Marier has more.
A well-known restaurant in Sudbury stirred up commotion on social media last week.
It started with a post on Facebook that turned to city-wide outrage. Damascus Shawarma said in the post that they have had enough and almost quit.
Ousama Qarqouz from Damascus Shawarma said they were overwhelmed by the support they received from the public.
Damascus Shawarma
Damascus Shawarma, a well-known restaurant in Sudbury, stirred up commotion on social media last week. It started with a post on Facebook that turned to city-wide outrage.
(Photo from video)
'When we posted that, the whole community was behind us,' Qarqouz said.
'The whole community was supporting us, which has encouraged us to keep going.'
'One reason keeps me in Sudbury -- just one reason and (that is having the) community behind me,' added Hussein Qarqouz, a baker from Syria who brought his family here in 2016 when he was forced to flee civil war.
He eventually opened Damascus Shawarma, which has become a popular eatery in the city.
Frustrated with landlord
In the Facebook post, however, the Qarqouz family cited many reasons for their frustration, mainly disputes with their landlord that they said make them want to move.
The family says they can no longer tolerate their relationship with their landlord.
'How long can we put up with this?' said Ousama Qarqouz.
'My dad's 50 years old and we came to this country because there's freedom. We ran from war.'
The Qarqouz family said they work hard every day maintaining their family business.
'I work very hard ... 12 hours every day. I … never take a day off,' said Hussein.
Damascus Shawarma
It started with a post on Facebook that turned to city-wide outrage. Damascus Shawarma said in the post that they have had enough and almost quit.
(Photo from video)
'I don't know (the) law and my (English) is not 100 per cent. (But) I am working very hard.'
CTV News reached out to P. J. Development Sudbury, one of four owners of the building where the restaurant is located. In collaboration with their lawyer, they gave us this statement:
'We've been in business for approximately 39 years, and our position is that this is a private matter between a landlord and a tenant that we are not prepared to discuss publicly.'
Damascus statement
CTV News reached out to P. J. Development Sudbury, one of four owners of the building where the restaurant is located. They sent us this statement.
(Photo from video)
The family said they have 18 months left on their lease, but due to the added stress of business, it's in their best interests to look for a new location.
We spoke to other store owners in the same strip mall, who told us they have not been mistreated by the four property owners.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
a minute ago
- Global News
Carney ‘disappointed' in Trump's 35% tariff on Canada
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he is 'disappointed' by U.S. President Donald Trump's imposition of a 35 per cent tariff on Canada but that even with that move, Canada still faces among the lowest average tariff rates of U.S. trading partners because of CUSMA. 'While the Canadian government is disappointed by this action, we remain committed to CUSMA, which is the world's second-largest free trade agreement by trading volume,' Carney wrote in a letter posted on X early Friday. 'The U.S. application of CUSMA means that the U.S. average tariff rate on Canadian goods remains one of its lowest for all of its trading partners.' Carney cautioned that other sectors remain heavily impacted due to industry-specific tariffs, including on lumber, steel, aluminum and automobiles. 'For such sectors, the Canadian government will act to protect Canadian jobs, invest in our industrial competitiveness, buy Canadian, and diversify our export markets,' Carney wrote. Story continues below advertisement The letter was posted just hours after Trump signed an executive order that would raise his tariffs on Canada to 35 per cent starting midnight Friday. The White House confirmed that goods under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement (CUSMA) on free trade will remain exempt from the higher tariff. The White House added that goods transshipped through other countries to avoid the 35 per cent tariff will instead be charged a tariff of 40 per cent. 4:17 New poll sheds light on how Canadians feel about tariff negotiations with the United States Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is in Washington, D.C., this week for ongoing negotiations. His office declined to share an update on those talks when asked by Global News on Thursday. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The Prime Minister's Office also declined to comment when asked if Carney had reached out to Trump or the White House this week. Story continues below advertisement Trump, in an interview with NBC News on Thursday after announcing new rates for his reciprocal tariffs, said that even though the duties would stay in place, 'it doesn't mean that somebody doesn't come along in four weeks and say we can make some kind of a deal.' The 35 per cent tariff is an increase from the 25 per cent duty that was levied by Trump earlier this year over what he has described as opioid trafficking and border security issues with Canada. Trump has long contended that Canada has failed to combat the flow of fentanyl across the two countries' shared border. But in the months since the tariff was imposed, Canada has boosted border security and hired a fentanyl czar to oversee its federal strategy against the deadly opioid. Carney defended Canada's efforts in his letter, saying the country has made 'historic investments' and would continue to work with the U.S. to stop the 'scourge of fentanyl.' 'The United States has justified its most recent trade action on the basis of the cross-broder flow of fentanyl, despite the fact that Canada accounts for only one per cent of U.S. fentanyl imports and has been working intensively to further reduce these volumes,' the prime minister wrote. The number cited by Carney is backed by annual drug seizure statistics from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, which shows that while about one per cent of all fentanyl seized at U.S. borders comes from Canada, the vast majority comes from Mexico. Story continues below advertisement 2:37 Trump frustrated with India trade talks, thinks 25% tariffs will help: Haslett Seizures did, however, shoot up to 11 and 14 kilograms in April and May, respectively, but dropped to one kilogram in June. The prime minister went on in his letter to reiterate comments he's made in recent weeks that the federal government would continue to negotiate with the U.S., but would focus on 'building Canada strong.' He cited work by Ottawa and the provincial and territorial governments to cut interprovincial trade barriers, and plans for 'nation-building projects' — two key goals of the Liberal government since it was re-elected in April. 'Canadians will be our own best customer, creating more well-paying careers at home, as we strengthen and diversify our trading partners throughout the world,' Carney said. Trump raised new concerns about whether a trade deal would be made with Canada when he said Canada's decision to recognize a Palestinian state would make it 'very hard' to reach an agreement. He later said on Thursday that the decision was 'not a dealbreaker,' but when asked about the talks, said, 'We'll see.' Story continues below advertisement — with files from Global News' Sean Boynton and The Associated Press
Globe and Mail
a minute ago
- Globe and Mail
Canada's growth advantage disappears
Daily roundup of research and analysis from The Globe and Mail's market strategist Scott Barlow BMO chief economist Doug Porter noticed that Canada's economic growth advantage over the U.S. is now gone, 'There were lots of moving parts in Canada's monthly GDP report, and thus a little bit for everyone. For the pessimists, there was confirmation that the Canadian economy pulled back for the second month in a row in May (with 0.1-per-cent dips). For the optimists, there was the fact that the economy is estimated to have started growing again in June (up 0.1 per cent), and the fact that output was roughly unchanged in Q2—a much less dire outcome than many expected at the start of the quarter. For the realists, there is the fact that Canada's underlying growth rate has retreated to back below 1.5 per cent year-over-year. That's after a brief, albeit glorious, spell when Canadian growth had managed to outpace the U.S. over a four-quarter period (to 2025 Q1), even poking up to 2.3 per cent year-over-year at that time. Given that 1.5 per cent is the neighbourhood that the BoC pegs potential growth, recent trends confirm that slack is opening up. 'BMO: 'Canada's Growth Outperformance: Gone, gone, gone'' – Bluesky *** Public cloud computing is expanding at a tremendous clip and Scotiabank analyst Patrick Colville offered top picks to benefit from the trend, 'Public cloud results in 2Q25 were strong, with all three hyperscalers beating consensus and reaccelerating sequentially. It's very clear that AI is driving this reacceleration, but qualitative commentary on traditional public cloud was also quite upbeat this quarter. As a result, we see the read through as positive to our consumption software names - Datadog, Snowflake, MongoDB, and Elastic. In our coverage we rate DDOG as our 'Top Offensive Pick', and we have MDB as our 'Be Cautious Call' … We estimate aggregate public cloud revenue growth in 2Q 2025 of 27 per cent accelerated an incredible 295 bps from 1Q. This is highly impressive given these businesses' massive scale and what we would classify as a slightly choppy macro backdrop for IT budgets based on our CIO work. Microsoft posted a jaw dropping quarter, where Azure revenue growth accelerated to 39 per cent due to strength in both AI and traditional workloads. Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services growth also accelerated nicely' *** Futurism reports that someone gave Chat GPT $100 to invest and it generated a 25-per-cent return in a month, 'In a post on r/Dataisbeautiful, the Redditor in question — real name Nathan Smith — described his project as a '6-month experiment to see how a language model performs in picking small, [under-covered] stocks with only a $100 budget.' According to a chart shared on Reddit, this literal gamble is already paying off. Using GPT-4o, one of OpenAI's most advanced models, the bot-trader's stock portfolio has increased in value by 25 percent over its first month — though given that Smith only invested $100, that means he's only made $25 so far. What's more, that rise was significantly higher than two 'small-cap' stock indexes, the Russell 2000 and XBI — in fact, the S&P 500 is up less than 3 percent over the past month — which suggests that ChatGPT very much picked correctly … To be fair, this is far from the first time someone's attempted such a gambit. Last December, researchers from Germany's Duisburg–Essen University published a paper in the journal Finance Research Letters finding that advanced OpenAI models did indeed seem to select money-making stocks. In an interview with Morningstar in June, meanwhile, University of Florida assistant finance professor Alejandro Lopez-Lira said that over years of simulating stock selection, ChatGPT wasn't all that great' Money compounded at 25 per cent per month grows FAST. 'Someone Gave ChatGPT $100 and Let It Trade Stocks for a Month' – Futurism *** Bluesky post of the day: Diversion: 'Is Your Diet Making You Depressed? A New Study Raises Concerns' – SciTechDaily
CTV News
a minute ago
- CTV News
Calgary's Jewish and Palestinian communities react to state recognition announcement
Calgary News Calgary's Jewish and Palestinian communities react to state recognition announcement Local reaction is pouring in following Prime Minister Mark Carney's announcement Canada will recognize Palestine as a state this fall.
