Critics accuse Ottawa of ignoring human rights as it signs trade deal with Ecuador

OTTAWA — Critics are accusing Ottawa of prioritizing trade over human rights by signing a free trade deal with Ecuador.

International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu and Ecuador’s minister of production, foreign trade and investment Luis Alberto Jaramillo took part in a signing event in Ottawa on Friday.

A Global Affairs Canada news release issued Friday said the event marks an “important milestone in Canada’s efforts to diversify trade and create new opportunities for Canadian businesses.”

“It also reflects Canada and Ecuador’s shared commitment to strengthening their trade and investment relationship and bringing the agreement into force as soon as possible,” said the release.

Several Canadian organizations and civil society leaders have warned that a Canada-Ecuador free trade deal will threaten the environment and worsen a human rights crisis in the South American country.

“Yet again, the government is prioritizing the profits of Canadian resource-extraction companies over the lives and rights of Indigenous women and girls, both in Canada and abroad,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada, in a joint news release published by MiningWatch.

Stuart Trew, director of the trade and investment research project at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said in the release that the trade deal will give Canadian mining companies “a coercive tool to steamroll over local opposition to their projects and avoid accountability for rights violations.”

Sasha Lleshaj, international trade and energy coordinator at Climate Action Network Canada, said in the release that the agreement is “the extension abroad of the government’s reckless climate deregulation agenda at home.”

“This isn’t the trade policy of a climate leader, but the erosion of the protections we need to keep communities safe,” said Lleshaj.

Negotiations on the trade pact concluded in early 2025 and the proposed deal would see Ecuador effectively remove tariffs from all Canadian imports.

The government’s website says bilateral trade between Canada and Ecuador reached almost $2.2 billion in 2025.

Global Affairs Canada said that by eliminating tariffs and reducing trade barriers, the agreement will improve market access for Canadian exporters, “enabling businesses to grow, create good jobs, and generate long-term economic benefits for workers, businesses and consumers in both countries.”

The department said that following the signing of the agreement, Canada and Ecuador will each complete domestic ratification processes and the deal will take effect after that process is complete.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2026.

-With files from Dylan Robertson

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press