Photo: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai.
The Canadian Press reports: “The MP [Member of Parliament] overseeing foreign aid says Ottawa wants to focus its international assistance efforts on countries that can generate economic spinoffs for Canadians.”
Randeep Sarai, the secretary of state for international development, tells The Canadian Press: “The first priority is focusing our development dollars in a trade and development nexus. Due to the new trade realities that the world is facing — and specifically Canada — I think we need to use development as a positive tool to help create new pathways and create mutual prosperity for the partner countries as well.”
The article further highlights that Sarai says that Canada needs to focus its aid on countries it wants to trade with.
The news report also notes: “[Prime Minister Mark] Carney telegraphed how his government would be linking aid and trade when he appointed MP Yasir Naqvi as parliamentary secretary both to Sarai and to Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu.”
The article concludes with Sarai suggesting more federal top-ups for Canadian programs in regions including Latin America.
Team Canada Trade Mission to Mexico
The Canadian Press article appears just prior to a Team Canada Trade Mission to Mexico that will take place from February 15 to 20.
That announcement highlights that Mexico is “Canada’s third-largest merchandise trading partner” and that bilateral trade between Canada and Mexico reached nearly $56 billion in 2024.
Notably, there were also 114 Canadian mining companies operating in Mexico with $13.0 billion in assets in 2024. The Embassy of Canada in Mexico has also noted: “In Mexico, Canada has invested over $10.3 billion dollars in the energy sector alone, including $4.1 billion dollars in renewable energy.”
Calgary-based TC Energy is the largest Canadian investor in Mexico. It’s the company that recently completed the Southeast Gateway (Puerta al Sureste) pipeline.
Mining, pipelines and extractive megaprojects can bring risks for organizations, defenders and communities who raise concerns about their human rights and environmental impacts, as well as to the journalists who report these stories.
Support for the Protection Mechanism
In September 2025, human rights defenders with the Civil Society Space of Organizations (Espacio OSC) asked Global Affairs Canada and Members of Parliament from all parties to support an investment in the Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico.
They highlighted Prime Minister Carney’s statement of September 18, 2025, on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Mexico that pledged “$9.9 million in funding for United Nations-led projects to support migrant integration initiatives in Mexico and combat the illicit production and trafficking of fentanyl.”
Notably, the Government of Canada has previously called for the strengthening of the Protection Mechanism during the United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Mexico in January 2024.
At that time, Canada recommended that Mexico: “Strengthen, from an intersectional and gender perspective, the federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, specifically in the areas of prevention, protection, investigation, and reparation.”
Webinar, February 12
To hear about the critical need for a strengthened Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico, please join us for this webinar featuring representatives from Espacio OSC.
Register here.
