"Indigenous women from Ecuador bring concerns on mining abuses, free trade to Parliament Hill", 02 October 2024

...Indigenous women from Ecuador are in Ottawa this week raising concerns a proposed free trade agreement could enable human rights abuses by Canadian mining companies operating on their ancestral lands...

...[F]our women leaders from Ecuador argued Indigenous peoples in their country stand to gain the least and suffer the most from the proposed agreement.

Zenaida Yasacama, vice-president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, the country's largest Indigenous rights organization, said the expansion of Canadian mining activity on Indigenous lands has already led to deforestation and destruction of vital ecosystems...

"They violate the human rights of Indigenous people, they violate the rights of nature and they violate our right to self govern," she said in Spanish, in response to a question from CBC Indigenous...

The Ecuadorian group wants Canada to not sign anything unless Indigenous peoples in Ecuador give their free, prior and informed consent, echoing a June 2024 recommendation from a House of Commons committee...