Montreal's Raymond Fontaine will play in his first Grey Cup on Sunday with one eye focused on Haiti.
It may seem strange to be talking about Haitian relief, AIDS and preventative sex instead of Xs and Os for a football player about to play in the biggest game of his career, but Raymond Fontaine looks at life beyond what he sees through a facemask.
Fontaine is a backup middle linebacker with the Montreal Alouettes, who play the Saskatchewan Roughriders this Sunday in the Grey Cup at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
This is the Als’ eighth appearance in the game since 2000.
It is Fontaine’s first Cup appearance.
This is his fifth year in the league, having spent his first four with the Toronto Argonauts, whom he started the 2010 season with but then was dropped and quickly picked up by Montreal.
The 30-year-old Ottawa native has Haitian roots and participated in a benefit concert with major Canadian celebrities from the entertainment world this past January following the devastating earthquake that rocked the country.
"I just felt it was important for me to be there and speak on behalf of the CFL people, Haitian people in Canada, Haitian people worldwide and reach out and ask Canada for help," he said.
This January, he will be one of eight CFL players going to Haiti for 10 days for a project called Huddle for Haiti, which will be done in conjunction with Oxfam Canada and WestJet, to help in the Haiti recovery.
Fontaine and five friends run the Persona Investment Group, which conducts fundraisers and special events for issues they feel are important. Last December on AIDS Awareness Day, the company did a showcase of Toronto talent and had performers to raise funds for the Give-A-Day Foundation, which challenges each Canadian to recognize World AIDS Day by giving one day’s pay to an organization involved in the fight against HIV.
"The main thing is not necessarily publicizing myself, but if I can use the limited celebrity status I have, I’m all for it," he said. "Helping out with my parent’s country where they were born and raised is something that is very important to me. I hope I can impact some kids there and give them some motivation to persevere through their hard time."
Fontaine hasn’t been to Haiti since he was six. His mother goes regularly, visiting family and relatives. He had many friends and family members affected by the quake.
He said he gives back for these causes because he considers himself fortunate.
"I know that in my life I have had some ups and downs and made some mistakes that could have impacted me in a very severe way or made choices that may have impacted me in a severe way where it didn’t happen," he said. "In some situations some more unfortunate people who make the same choices I do fall down the short end of the stick and have to deal with the consequences of their action. Being fortunate, it’s only right to give back and create awareness for some people who had a choice or didn’t have a choice and are in unfortunate situations. If we can help by any means that’s something I want to do."
Fontaine, a father of a five-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter who was a member of the Argonauts’ Huddle Up Program to stop bullying, believes peer pressure in the sensitive area of intimacy hasn’t changed.
"Intimacy issues with children are rising but it’s existed for a long time and awareness has to be brought up," he said. "Contraceptives need to be encouraged if that’s what you believe in and abstinence needs to be encouraged when it comes to those situations.
"Growing up I was well informed and I made some conscious decisions whether or not to use contraceptives or things of that sort to stay out of trouble, whereas some people were confident in their decisions to use them or not use them and had a mishap and have to deal with the consequence of their actions. "Raising money to help create awareness for that is a good thing, and for people who are born into a situation where they might have HIV or something like that, it’s not because you did something wrong that you need to deal with this situation."
