FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

(Ottawa, Ontario) Prominent voices from across Canada—including human rights, Indigenous, labour, and environment leaders—are calling on the federal government to halt a proposed free trade agreement with Ecuador that flies in the face of the Carney government’s stated commitment to international human rights and values-based foreign policy. 

“Canada needs to listen. Indigenous people in Ecuador said ‘NO’ to this agreement,” states esteemed Indigenous rights defender tsiqw xwéxwne (Red Hummingbird), Judy Wilson, former Chief of the Neskonlith Indian band and former secretary-treasurer of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, who served on council for 25 years. 

“Indigenous women in Ecuador have spoken loudly and clearly about human rights violations at the hands of Canadian mining companies. This free trade agreement will exacerbate existing concerns,” says Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada. “Canada must listen to voices on the ground, and ensure rights are protected.”

“The free trade agreement is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” says respected environmental advocate Tzeporah Berman, Chair of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative and International Program Director at STAND.earth. “It opens even more doors with less guardrails to Canadian mining companies who have a terrible record in the Amazon. Carney needs to consult with and listen to Indigenous people and impacted communities before he makes a big problem even bigger.”

“Everything about both the process and substance of the FTA between Canada and Ecuador ignores, undermines, and violates binding international human rights obligations, including crucial standards that protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples. This cannot go ahead,” concludes Alex Neve, Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Ottawa and this year’s much-honoured CBC-Massey Lecturer on Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World.

Adds Peggy Nash, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: “Prime Minister Carney says the rules-based international order serves the interests of the powerful, yet his government is rapidly signing new trade and investment deals that do the same. The Canada-Ecuador free trade agreement must be rejected, as long as it privileges corporations and investors over the interests of people and the Earth.”

Also speaking out against the Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement are leaders of other important civil society organizations. They include Greenpeace Canada, Indigenous Climate Action, Sacred Earth, the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, Common Frontiers, the Americas Policy Group, KAIROS Canada, and MiningWatch Canada, as well as human rights experts from the University of Ottawa, University of British Columbia, and University of Toronto. 

Their urgent calls echo equally urgent demands from counterparts in Ecuador. Civil society organizations in both countries are calling for a different path forward: a trade framework that puts Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, human rights, environmental protection, trade justice, and the rights of nature at its core.

States Eriel Deranger, President of Indigenous Climate Action and founder of the Woven Project: “In the midst of a growing global crisis, this free trade agreement doubles down on resource extraction and Business as Usual, once again sacrificing people and ecosystems. We need systemic and transformative change led by Indigenous Peoples, our knowledge, rights and ways of life. In order to achieve this, we must take collective decisive action to uphold and safeguard Indigenous Peoples’ survival and the survival of the planet.”

Background:

The Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement is strongly opposed by a broad range of civil society organizations in both countries. They fear it will exacerbate a grave human rights crisis in Ecuador, marked by increasing authoritarian measures, militarization, attacks on constitutional protections, repression of social protest, denial of Indigenous rights, and persecution of communities defending land and water. Negotiators have been clear that a priority goal is to promote Canadian mining investment in Ecuador. The deal includes hotly contested corporate investment protections that UN experts have recommended removing from international agreements and have warned of “catastrophic consequences for human rights and the environment.”

Other concerns include lack of consultation with Indigenous Peoples and civil society in Ecuador, heightened risks to the safety of women and girls in mining-affected communities, and Canada’s lack of effective mechanisms to ensure accountability for harms linked to the operation of Canadian companies abroad.

To learn more: Read a four-page backgrounder Canada’s Free Trade Agreement with Ecuador – Why We Say No.

For more information and to arrange interviews, contact: 

•  Miriam Shaftoe, MiningWatch Canada, miriam@miningwatch.ca