Thank you.

Thank you, members of the committee, for inviting us to this hearing.

MiningWatch Canada is a Canadian organization that for over two decades has worked in solidarity with indigenous peoples and non-indigenous communities struggling to protect their lives and territories from human rights abuses and environmental damage across Canada and by Canadian mining companies operating internationally.

Our partners in Ecuador are concerned about the lack of transparency and consultation regarding a free trade agreement between Canada and Ecuador. In a statement signed by our partners and other Ecuadorian social and environmental organizations, they talk of high levels of socio-environmental conflicts related to territories where Canadian mining is active. They say, “The territories are treated as sacrificial—a mentality which will be even more difficult to reverse if an FTA further cements legal protections for these investments.”

A central focus of this free trade agreement will be support for foreign investment in mining. Given the often violent imposition of mining development in Ecuador, it can be anticipated that a free trade agreement with Ecuador will exacerbate environmental conflicts, human rights violations, the militarization of territories and threats and intimidation against indigenous leaders who speak out against Canadian mining projects. Meanwhile, Canada still has no meaningful mechanism to prevent or provide redress for such abuses.

The most recent cases of violence related to Canadian mining in Ecuador involve Adventus Mining and Atico Mining. In July 2023 in an attempt to impose the pro-mining executive decree 754, vast police repression and intimidation were unleashed against indigenous and campesino communities opposing these two companies' activities.

Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed his concern over the violence. He condemned the decree that allowed companies to start mining operations without free, prior and informed consent from indigenous communities. He said, “People directly affected by mining projects or activities must be heard, not repressed”.

The Canadian embassy visited both mining sites in a visit organized by the mining companies just a few weeks before the military crackdown, and it failed to denounce the violence.

Despite a large social movement against Canadian mining in Ecuador, Canadian mining companies and embassy officials have been actively involved in promoting the expansion of Canadian mining projects in the country, undermining indigenous self-determination. For example, in southern Ecuador, in a citizen-led initiative in 2021, 80% of the residents of Cuenca voted in favour of protecting water and against industrial mining in a fragile ecosystem that supplies water to tens of thousands of people in and around the city of Cuenca.

In the Amazon in 2019, the indigenous Shuar-Arutam people declared their territory free of mining and that their right to say no to mining projects must be respected. Canadian Dundee Precious Metals and Solaris Resources continue to pursue these projects, despite this clear rejection.

A free trade agreement that enhances corporate access to markets and capital will lead to greater impunity for Canadian mining companies that violate human rights, given that no mechanism currently exists in Canada to hold these companies accountable for such abuses.

Another major concern is the inclusion of an investor-state dispute settlement. The ISDS mechanism is commonly used by Canadian mining companies to sue countries in private supranational tribunals, for example, if they are denied mining permits. This restricts a government's ability to deny permits to protect their territories and water, or the human rights of their citizens.

Therefore, Canada must take ISDS off the table. As the Canadian government gets ready to initiate conversations with its Ecuadorian counterpart, we call on the Canadian government to halt diplomatic support for Canadian mining investments in territories that have already said no to mining.

No free trade agreement should advance without indigenous peoples' free, prior and informed consent. Canada suffers from a lack of accountability in its mining sector. As such, Canada should not advance any new trade with Ecuador without an empowered independent Canadian ombudsperson for responsible enterprise and without having enacted rigorous human rights and environmental due diligence.

Thank you.

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