Canada and Ecuador are in their fourth round of negotiations towards a free trade agreement set to dramatically expand Canadian mining investment in the South American country.
The intentions behind this trade deal are clear, supported by years of lobbying by Canadian companies and direct support from the Canadian Embassy to shape mining policy in Ecuador. The Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement currently under negotiation – without any consultation with Ecuadorian civil society, and ignoring crucial voices of those already being harmed by Canadian resource extraction projects – sets the stage to worsen an already deteriorating human rights situation in the country.
A lot is at stake. In this brief, we provide an overview of Canadian mining investment in Ecuador and spotlight four Canadian projects which exemplify some of the harms caused by mining, including an instance in which ISDS was already used: Atico Mining’s La Plata project, Solaris Resources’ Warintza project, Dundee Precious Metals’ Loma Larga project, and Copper Mesa’s Llurimagua project. This brief aims to highlight some of the ways Canadian mining investment is often imposed through violence, militarization and repression, and expose how a free trade agreement opens the door to increased Canadian investment with few protections in place to ensure community consent and environmental protection, and with no effective mechanism in Canada to hold companies accountable for abuse.