QUESTION PERIOD — Global Affairs
Canada-Ecuador Free Trade
December 17, 2024
Senator Gold, Global Affairs Canada is in the final stages of negotiating a free trade agreement with Ecuador. Among other things, it aims to promote more Canadian mining.
In October, a delegation of Ecuadorian Indigenous women leaders and water defenders visited Ottawa and shared allegations of human rights violations and environmental threats linked to Canadian mine projects. Presently, Amnesty International reports a worsening human rights situation and attacks on people seeking to protect their land and water. What concrete steps is the government taking to independently evaluate the human rights impacts as a result of the increase in Canadian mining in Ecuador?
Thank you for your question, senator, and for your continued advocacy for and concerns about the interaction of economic development and mining and its impact on human rights generally and on Indigenous interests here and abroad.
It is a fact that these all intersect. Although we often tend to think of them in siloed terms, and certainly those who speak to us about them often present one side of the issue when they are interconnected, as we all are in this world. As you know, the government has the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, or CORE, which reviews complaints and concerns about possible human rights abuses by Canadian companies when they work outside of Canada in the garment industry, mining industry and oil and gas sectors. The government takes concerns such as those you have raised very seriously, and I will certainly raise them with the minister.
In November Global Affairs Canada released a summary of its initial Gender-based Analysis of the Canada-Ecuador Free Trade negotiation. It did not contain any information on gender-based impacts of mining in Ecuador such as reports of increased threats and gender-based violence against women in mining communities. What steps will the government take to address these regrettable gaps in this gender impact assessment?
Thank you for the question and for bringing the issue to my attention. I do not know which information has been provided to the minister in this regard, but I know the minister would be open to such information. I will raise it with the minister at the earliest opportunity.
