Even though he has never suffered discrimination linked to his origins, Arber Xhekaj knows how starting a new life in a new country comes with its share of obstacles.
Her mother left her native Czechoslovakia after the fall of the communist regime and landed in Canada to start over. His father, an Albanian refugee, didn’t speak a word of English when he settled in Ontario after fleeing the explosive climate of the Balkans in the late 1990s.
They were told to return home. They were looked upon as aliens because of their poor command of the common language.
Xhekaj has heard these stories. And he wants to make sure they are a thing of the past.
At 22, the big Canadian defender has just associated his name with two causes that are close to his heart. The Angel Project, an Ontario organization that provides financial support to sick people in need, as well as Vision Inter-Cultures, a Longueuil group that helps immigrant families.
“It’s a cause that particularly touches me,” explains Xhekaj during a short interview with La Presse. When my parents immigrated here, they had a lot of difficulty settling in and finding their bearings. It was very hard for them. »
We feel that a sensitive chord vibrates within him when he details the organization’s initiatives. Usually more or less talkative, he explains how Inter-Cultures “helps immigrants to make ends meet, to find a job.” He is enthusiastic about the work done with schools to “help children socialize and teachers to better understand their culture or religion.”
“It’s very cool, what they’re doing. »
He says he is proud to be involved in his hometown, but also in his adopted region. “I play in Montreal and I spend a large part of the year here. I wanted to give back to the French-speaking community. »
At the same time, he also wants to “give a voice to second-generation immigrants”. To young people like him, in short. To enable them, he said, “to believe in their dreams.” Like him too.
Its involvement, for the moment, takes the form of a partnership with the sports microbrewery La Chambre, in Terrebonne. On Wednesday, Xhekaj visited the site to launch a range of burgers, the beefiest of which is nicknamed “The Sheriff” in his honour. For every “Arber’ger” sold – do you understand it? –, one dollar will be given to the charities he has chosen.
Although the project is still very young, it already has a good idea of the audience it wants to help: “less privileged” children. In particular to “allow them to play sports even if their parents cannot afford it”.
“Hockey is one of the most expensive sports,” he recalls.
At school, he saw classmates held back by the cost of registration or equipment. And above all, he saw his parents bleed so that his sisters, his brother and he had access to organized sport.
There is obviously another sensitive chord here.
“I carry within me the legacy of what my parents started,” he says. I owe them the world. They sacrificed years for us. Everything I do is for them. Because without them, none of this would have been possible. »
“That” is the hubbub that Xhekaj points to with a wave of his hand. The establishment, noisy, is crowded. The defender continues interviews with different media. Supporters wait patiently to take a photo with him. During the discussion with La Presse, a photographer interrupts him to raise the cowboy hat screwed on his head. A cameraman asks him to show him his signature burger, which can certainly sustain an average human for a full day.
The whole story of Arber Xhekaj can be summed up at a glance. That of a son of immigrants who, like his parents in life, received no gifts in his sport, but who overcame adversity. Never drafted, here he is today, in his second season in the NHL, among the Habs’ most popular players.
Fame doesn’t “go to his head,” he assures. “I’ve always been pretty relaxed about it. I don’t make myself believe that I’m someone I’m not. I play hockey, I do my business. I’m as normal as any guy sitting near me. »
Any guy may not have the hands of a giant or the reputation of being one of the fiercest fighters in the NHL. But we get his point. And we tend to believe it.
