No mountain had slowed Mathieu Blanchard to date. Until he comes up against that of the bureaucracy.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
Last Wednesday, four days after his historic performance at the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), the native Frenchman was ready to return to Quebec, his home, where he has lived for ten years.
But at the airport, as he is about to board the plane, he is told of a problem: his Canadian permanent residence card has expired. “You cannot return to Quebec,” he is told.
Blanchard will argue that he lives there and has no home in France, to no avail.
“We have been saying for nine years: ‟The Montrealer who will win races and who represents Quebec around the world”, then in the end, the government does not recognize me as a Quebecer. Until forbidding me to get on the plane to reach my home. »
Blanchard was well aware that his residency status ended after five years. Although the expiration date appears behind the card in very small size, he says. And he also knew that, as with the passport, if this card is expired, no salvation.
But two elements of the story irritate him deeply.
First, that he was prevented from crossing the Atlantic so that he could settle this administrative problem simply, in person.
“I’m also a bit guilty. I should have, when leaving for the race, checked the expiration of my card. From a purely administrative point of view, I am in the wrong”, he admits, in a video interview with The PressTuesday noon, Quebec time.
“On the other hand, from an ethical and human point of view, it is not normal to prevent me from getting on the plane and going home to renew my resident card. To tell me to stay in France and to manage with the embassy to find a solution. »
Fortunately, there might be a solution. The athlete is betting on “a kind of visa” called TVRP (travel document for permanent resident). He transmitted his passport with this hope to the embassy in Paris.
It makes no sense. There is a solution, but it is not the simplest.
Matthew Blanchard
If this stamp is granted to him, he can nevertheless return to the country and ask for his card to be renewed. For the moment, he is patient at the family home in Cavaillon, not far from Marseille, hoping to see his passport in the mailbox, enhanced with the stamp that will free him from the bureaucratic yoke.
“But there, I am in total vagueness”, he loose.
And if the TVRP is not assigned to him, the situation will become even more complicated. “From there, I have no more solution, apart from swimming or rowing,” he says.
But, obviously, even a favorable outcome would leave traces. A bitter taste, at best.
“In fact, I must admit that I am so disgusted now, it influences my life so much that I say to myself: ‘Too bad, Quebec doesn’t want me, I’ve been here for almost 10 years. , I’m leaving, I’m going back to France, then basta”. »
Slow citizenship process
The other cause of his outrage is the slow processing of his citizenship application, which he claims he made three years ago, the same day he was eligible. As he had done a few years earlier for his permanent residence.
“The sinews of war is that my citizenship should not have taken more than three years to arrive and that today there is no telephone number to tell someone: ‟Hey guys, check my file because there is a problem, there is something stuck.” It is not possible that it lasts more than three years. »
Mathieu Blanchard arrived in Quebec in 2014 with a work visa. He was an engineer, a profession he has since left.
Many of his friends had their Canadian citizenship recognized in a year, a year and a half. Not him.
“As my citizenship process fell into a deep crack I don’t know where, well, that gave the card time to expire, so I’m not yet a citizen and I’m not a resident anymore. today,” he sums up.
Last November, the athlete – who is director of international business development for La Clinique durunner – passed the penultimate step leading to Canadian citizenship, a test he describes as “quite complicated, about the country’s history, politics, all that”. Ten months later, he is still waiting.
It is therefore not entirely accurate to say that his file fell into a crack. In fact, he seems to have been fished out of the first… before sinking into another.
Ottawa’s response
Mathieu Blanchard says he wrote to the office of his federal MP – Minister Steven Guilbeault – and to a few MPs from other ridings. The Press attempted to learn more about the Franco-Quebecois file from the Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (MIRC). After sending, as requested, an authorization form duly completed and signed by Mathieu Blanchard, the MIRC replied that a written response would be provided to us as soon as possible, referring us for the moment to a general statement, of which here is an exerpt :
“Permanent Residents (PRs) of Canada must present their valid PR card or Permanent Resident Travel Document (PRTD) when boarding an aircraft bound for Canada or traveling to Canada by any other commercial carrier. If they do not carry their PR card or TVRP on their person, they may be refused access on board the plane, train, coach or boat. It is their responsibility to ensure that their PR card is still valid when they return to Canada and to apply for a new one when it expires. For current permanent residents applying to renew their PR card, the current processing time is 78 days. »
Step by step with a legend
PHOTO JEFF PACHOUD, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Kílian Jornet, winner of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc 2022
“It’s awful, I was on my little cloud of happiness, and then this story of having me turned back, it freaked me out…, says Mathieu Blanchard, suddenly emotional. It hurt me. »
In a few days, Blanchard went from one extreme to another emotionally. If last Wednesday, he had to turn on his heels at the airport, the previous Saturday, he had marked the annals of the mythical Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB).
” I do not deserve this. It’s unfair and it makes me angry. But it’s so powerful, what happened to me at the UTMB, that I still manage to keep the focus on it a bit, ”he underlines.
What happened to him on that 19e UTMB? Complete the 170 km event in less than 20 hours. A psychological ceiling that had never been shattered.
One would be led to believe that he therefore won the race…
From Kílian Jornet to P. K. Subban
With about fifty kilometers to go, the Franco-Quebecer joins the leader, Kílian Jornet. In the grip of strong muscular pains, Jornet is unwell. Instead of overtaking him without qualms, Blanchard slows down to support him and run with him. The Spaniard will cross the line in 19 h 49 min 30 s, ie 5 min 20 s before his competitor.
Looking back, does Blanchard regret – if only a little – his outburst of sportsmanship?
“No,” he replies unequivocally. Because the person I did this with is the legend of our sport. Not of our times, of all times.
“He ran up Everest, he won all the biggest races in the world. He is a god. And I have a lot of respect for him, he inspired me enormously through his books, his films. I’m where I am today partly because of that person’s inspiration, so it was impossible for me to walk past him and say, ‘ciao, bye, I got you’. »
In addition to his second place, Blanchard will therefore retain the privilege he had of running in the wake of Jornet.
PHOTO JEFF PACHOUD, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Mathieu Blanchard and Kilian Jornet
“It’s as if we were telling you that you have the choice between playing hockey for two hours with Subban or going into it and hurting him”, illustrates the Quebecer.
The runner smiled a little while pronouncing the name of the ex-Canadian defender. He admits that his foodie credentials aren’t up to date. However, we got the idea.
“It’s a second place behind the greatest athlete of all time. It’s like I won. »
The following
Blanchard is honorary president of the Ultra-Trail Harricana du Canada (UTHC), which will take place next weekend in Charlevoix. The question now is whether he can be there in the flesh. The odds obviously seem unfavorable.
“And it hurts my heart,” he blurts out.
Perhaps he could take on his role remotely, but that would be “a less human option,” which he hadn’t discussed with the event director at the time of our interview.
Then, in November, Blanchard would have liked to race for Canada at the World Mountain and Trail Championships, which will be held in Thailand. But first he would have to obtain his Canadian citizenship. A prospect which, at the moment, also seems unlikely.
“Journalists have often asked me the question: ‟Mathieu, you are of French origin, would you run under the Canadian flag?” I always answered “yes”, because I discovered this sport in Quebec, where my trail running community is. It would be a gesture of the heart for me. I learned everything and my whole life has developed thanks to Quebec and Montreal and I am in love with the country. »
But the “crazy meander” in which he finds himself means that he may rather align himself for his country of origin.
“Unless someone wakes up and manages to unlock my citizenship before November. But I highly doubt. »