Butcher and law school: Islander juggles double life of going to school and running a shop

Chris van Ouwerkerk is passionate about meat.

"It's the creative outlet, for me it's kind of art and to be able to express myself through it is what I've always enjoyed about it," explained van Ouwerkerk, who trained as an apprentice butcher for a year in Vancouver and opened a specialty meat store in Charlottetown in January.

Trouble is, he's also fascinated by the law. So when it came time to choose between the butcher shop and his final year of law school, he talked it over with his parents and girlfriend.

"We just reached the decision that the butcher shop is something that we all loved and were proud of so why not try and do both?" said van Ouwerkerk.

So far, he says, that has meant a lot of driving, a lot of discipline, and probably not as much sleep as he would like.

Each week, van Ouwerkerk leaves early Monday morning to make the four hour trek from P.E.I. to UNB in Fredericton, and returns to the Island Thursday night.

Rigorous training

Van Ouwerkerk started at working in the meat department at Sobeys as a teenager. A couple of years ago, he decided he needed a break from university.

"I started law school and left and wanted to do something different and that's when I went to apprentice," he explained.

"It's discipline is what I've really learned," he said of the experience.

"When you're working with whole animals, you have to be able to envision an end game from the very moment you get it in."

He describes his butcher training as being similar to the "kitchen culture", with a lot of call and command, especially from his British instructor.

"He was the best person I've ever worked for but he was also the strictest, hardest person I've ever worked for, so I learned a lot from him and I learned a lot about myself doing it," said van Ouwerkerk.

"Doing that is actually what brought me back to law school was I realized that there's a way to get through everything."

Holding down the fort

While van Ouwerkerk is commuting between Charlottetown and law school in New Brunswick, his girlfriend Jennifer Lavoie runs the shop. 

"Immediately I thought he was crazy," said Lavoie.

"But then we sat down and looked at my time and his time and we decided we could make it work because he has the passion to do both."

Lavoie is not a butcher. In fact, she works 40 hours a week in the pharmacy in the emergency department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. 

"Coming here, after my shift or before, it's really great stress relief," said Lavoie.

Right now, she's logging about 40 hours at the butcher shop, on top of her work at the hospital. 

"I'm young. I don't have kids, I don't have pets," she said.

The importance of hard work

She points to the example of the van Ouwerkerk family who she says taught Chris the importance of hard work. His father is a truck driver and his mother, a nurse at the hospital where Lavoie works.

"Both of his parents have been here, cutting meat with us and packaging stuff late at night so he's got full support from all of his family," added Lavoie.

Ironically, Lavoie was actually a vegetarian for seven years.

"Now I could eat bacon every day and donair meat and capicola and kielbasa, it goes on and on and on," she joked.

'I'll always be a butcher'

Van Ouwerkerk says a few of his professors at law school know about the butcher shop, and the associate dean even checked in with him to make sure the demands of his "double life" weren't too much for him, which he appreciated.

As for what's next, he will need to article after he graduates, at which point he admits he may not be as able to juggle the butcher business and law.

"Whatever I can do to stay here and make it work, that's the goal," he said.

"I do want to keep doing it, there's never a point in my life that I can say I won't be a butcher, I'll always be a butcher."

A noble profession

His goal now is to share his knowledge with others so that they can take over the workload at the shop.

Even after a long first semester at law school, he's still fired up about what he does with meat when he's back on the Island.

"There's nothing about this job that is anything short of glorious," he said. "It's one of those professions that often times gets overlooked or people will say that's not the nicest job to be doing."

"But I hold it in just as high a regard as the law, it's something that is really noble, in my mind."

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS | Keeping up traditions: Istvan Bankuti brings Hungarian wreaths to P.E.I. homes
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS | CBC P.E.I.'s Feed a Family Campaign begins