Two human rights defenders from Mexico will be in Ottawa this month to meet with Government of Canada officials, Members of Parliament, and social movement and civil society allies, to raise awareness of the situation of human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico and find ways to support them.
Both Hugo and Elizabeth are members of the Civil Society Space of Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC).
Their includes monitoring and proposing reforms and improvements to Mexico’s Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.
Mexico is among the countries with the highest number of attacks against human rights defenders and journalists.
More than 203 land and environmental defenders have been killed in Mexico between 2012 (the year the Mechanism was enacted) and 2023, while eight journalists were killed while registered with the Mechanism over the last seven years.
Canada’s bilateral relationship with Mexico
Hugo and Elizabeth’s visit to Ottawa comes at a pivotal time.
Last month, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand stated: “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for us to reignite the bilateral relationship [between Canada and Mexico].”
This past June, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum visited Canada for the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.
On August 5-6, Anand and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne participated in meetings with government and business in Mexico. They said they were there “kickstarting” a bilateral economic relationship with Mexico with Anand highlighting the two countries were looking into “port-to-port lines of trade.”
Then on August 10-13, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was in Mexico from to meet with Mexican government officials and business leaders, including representatives of state oil producer Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex).
Carney in Mexico, September 18
And now Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to meet with Sheinbaum in Mexico City on September 18.
Business and human rights
Last month, Toronto Star business columnist David Olive commented: “Under Sheinbaum’s six-year ‘Plan México’ industrial strategy, Mexico aims to attract about $100 billion (U.S.) in additional annual FDI [foreign direct investment].”
Olive further noted: “Discussions [between Canada and Mexico] so far have covered building more resilient supply chains, developing direct port-to-port trade routes between Canada and Mexico, managing the digital economy, and building conventional and renewable energy infrastructure.”
Olive also highlights that Alberta is interested in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Mexico and the refining of Trans Mountain pipeline crude oil into diesel and aviation fuels in Mexico. Talks between the two countries could also lead TC Energy building more pipelines like their recently completed Southeast Gateway gas pipeline in southern Mexico, an expanded Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railway network in Mexico, and increased Canadian investment in Mexico (the public pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec already holds $9 billion worth of Mexican assets).
This comes at a time when the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) continues to highlight that Canada does not have a mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence law, The Globe and Mail reports that the Future of Canadian corporate watchdog uncertain as top position remains vacant (July 2, 2025), there are ongoing concerns about Canadian mining and pipeline companies in Mexico, the case of Mariano Abarca remains unresolved, and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders says Canada’s ‘Voices at Risk’ guidelines “hasn’t been properly implemented.”
Canada and the Protection Mechanism
Notably though, the Government of Canada expressed concern about the Protection Mechanism during the United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Mexico and made recommendations for its strengthening.
At the UN UPR session held on January 24, 2024, 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.”
Prior to this session, Canada had also asked Mexico: “How will the new General law to respect, protect, guarantee, and promote the rights of human rights defenders and journalists address key challenges under the current mechanism, including in achieving results, improving federal-state-municipal cooperation, and promoting prevention of violence against human rights defenders and journalists?”
More about the visit
For updates about the visit of Hugo and Elizabeth to Ottawa, please see our website and on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook and X.
