The Sainte-Gertrude primary school in Montreal North breathes a sigh of relief: teacher Sarah Chauveau, who was preparing to return to France because her spouse was unable to obtain his immigration papers, will be able to stay. The day after the publication of an article by Duty recounting their story, her husband finally obtained his electronic travel authorization (eTA), a mandatory document to land on Canadian soil, which he had been waiting for more than six months.
This travel document issued by Immigration Canada is usually ready in just a few minutes. Sarah Chauveau had obtained hers a few hours after making the request, last August.
At the end of the line, we feel a smile in the voice of M.me Chauveau, even if she admits that she was not happy at the time. “When my husband told me that, I didn’t believe it,” she said. I was like, “Okay, okay. That’s how it works. We’ve been trying to find out more for months, but it takes the media. »
Despite this good news, the couple was not certain to stay. Mme Chauveau was ready to leave on the 1er March: she had her plane ticket, had terminated her lease and had even found a new job in France. “We spoke to a lot of people and we said to ourselves, in the end: why not? »
Happy students
A decision that made the director of the Sainte-Gertrude school, Julie Morin, happy. “The first winners are the children. They won’t have to go through a third change of teacher in the space of a year,” she told the Dutyrecalling that they were upset to lose their teacher.
Mme Morin tried to convince Sarah Chauveau to stay by promising to do everything to help her husband, who worked as a journalist and entertainment host, to find a job. ” I said [à Sarah] that was just a foretaste of what Quebecers can do when they mobilize! »
Sarah Chauveau said she was happy with all this support. “It’s fun. Quebecers are really very benevolent, ”she said. The French-born teacher wanted to return to her country because she found it difficult to have to bear the costs of her stay alone, an experience in Quebec that the couple had planned to live together, and not separate. “It’s ultimately a story that ends well. »
In reaction to the article of Duty, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, had decried the slowness of Immigration Canada. “We need arms in the education network and we can only reiterate that the slow delays at Immigration Canada are unacceptable. The opposition parties were also outraged by the departure of this teacher, whom Quebec badly needs in this labor shortage.