X photo from Dominic LeBlanc.

The Globe and Mail has reported: “A massive Canadian trade delegation will descend on Mexico on Sunday [February 15] … Led by Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for North American trade, the trip will include leaders of approximately 250 Canadian businesses as well as government and industry officials [for a total of 370 Canadian delegates].”

The news article further highlights: “[Mexico has] proven an attractive destination for Canadian foreign direct investment, which totalled $46-billion in 2024. More than 60 Canadian auto parts companies and nearly 140 Canadian mining companies operate in Mexico. And a number of Canada’s largest businesses have a sizable footprint in the country [including] TC Energy Corp. [that] has over US$11-billion invested in 3,600 kilometres of natural gas pipelines in Mexico…”

It further notes: “Companies such as Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. are betting on this growth. One reason CP bought the Kansas City Southern Railway in 2021 was to create a continental network that encompassed Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.” In May 2023, Bnamericas reported that the Government of Mexico had invited Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) to participate in the Maya Train and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec isthmus rail corridor between Oaxaca and Veracruz states.

More mining and energy megaprojects?

The Globe and Mail article also comments: “The regulatory environment can be constraining. [Former president Andrés Manuel] López Obrador reversed an opening of Mexico’s energy market, and around US$3.5-billion worth of investments in Canadian mining projects in the country have been stalled by regulatory challenges, according to the mining committee of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico.”

And now Mining.com reports: “Mexico and Canada will present an joint action plan on minerals, infrastructure and supply chains in the second half of the year, Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Monday after meeting with Canada’s Minister of Trade, Dominic LeBlanc, in Mexico City. ‘We are preparing during the next month the action plan between Mexico and Canada in order to expand investment, increase commerce, reduce regulatory difficulties or obstacles, and facilitate investment,’ Ebrard told journalists. He also said a delegation of Mexico’s finance ministry will visit Canada to continue conversations, without providing a date.”

Security

CBC News adds: “The Canadian delegation arrives as authorities grapple with last month’s kidnapping of 10 workers with the Vancouver-based mining firm Vizsla Silver Corp., in the state of Sinaloa. Five have since been found dead, according to authorities who have linked the case to a faction of the Sinaloa drug cartel.”

The CBC article further notes: “Ottawa is ‘very concerned’ about the case, said LeBlanc, but added there is ‘no daylight’ between the two governments on security matters and the protection of Canadian citizens, businesses and investments in Mexico. He said Canada and Mexico maintain open and transparent discussions on security issues and that President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government ‘has made very, very considerable movement forward in the security context in Mexico.’”

AFP notes: “LeBlanc said that security should be a priority and announced that the Canadian Royal Mounted Police plans to double the number of officials who work in the Canadian Embassy in Mexico this year.”

Security for communities

But The Los Angeles Times also reports on insecurity for communities and environmental defenders. It notes: “The mine workers’ disappearance in late January brought more troops into the mountains as they searched by air and on the ground for signs of them. …Roque Vargas, a human rights activist for people displaced by violence in the area, said that ‘all of the hubbub has scattered the organized crime guys’ but he worries they could return. He and others are also concerned about being mistaken for bad guys and attacked by security forces when they leave their town, because it has happened elsewhere in the state. ‘We’ve practically been abandoned’, he said.”

That report adds: “Mines, along with other businesses like avocado groves and pipelines carrying gasoline, have long attracted organized crime’s attention in Mexico as a source of extortion payments or to steal the extracted material. Saucedo, who has researched cases in Guanajuato, Sinaloa and Sonora, said he has also seen cases where mines take advantage of armed groups to control mine opponents. The Mexican government has said it has no reports that Vizsla was extorted. Sheinbaum said that her administration would talk with all mining companies in Mexico ‘to offer the support they require’.”

Human rights defenders and journalists

PBI-Canada is following the news this week about the Team Canada Trade Mission to Mexico, specifically in relation to the safety and security needs of human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico.

Notably, we are looking to news reports for potential implications of any expansion of Canadian mining, energy/pipeline and transportation infrastructure on the safety and security of human rights defenders and journalists.

Last week, aware of this Team Canada Trade Mission, PBI-Canada and PBI-Mexico, alongside the Space for Civil Society Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC) organized a webinar with the call to strengthen the Protection Mechanism and protective measures for human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico.

Mario Hurtado Cardozo of Espacio OSC commented: “Violence against human rights defenders and journalists doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in a very specific context where you have different interests that all come together: economic interests, state interests, institutional interests, and institutional impunity.”

He highlighted three Canadian mining projects of concern: the Equinox Gold Los Filos mine, Fortuna Silver San José mine and the New Gold Cerro de San Pedro mine. Indigenous communities have also raised concerns about TC Energy pipelines on their territories. And there have been concerns expressed about railway megaprojects including the Mayan Train (that CPKC was invited to join).

You can watch the webinar in Spanish here.

PBI-Canada is monitoring news reports and official announcements from cabinet ministers, Members of Parliament, Embassy officials and corporate representatives to see if some attention is given to these concerns.

On February 12, PBI-Canada and PBI-Mexico, alongside the Space for Civil Society Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC), organized a webinar on the strengthening of the Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico.

You can watch the webinar in Spanish here.

In response to a question about the Protection Mechanism and Canadian companies in Mexico, Mario Hurtado Cardozo of Espacio OSC stated:

“Violence against human rights defenders and journalists doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in a very specific context where you have different interests that all come together: economic interests, state interests, institutional interests, and institutional impunity.

With extractive projects and infrastructure there are a lot of Canadian interests, particularly in mining. There are a lot of Canadian companies involved in mining. …And a lot of them are on Indigenous territories. Lots of them haven’t gone through the proper free, prior and informed consent. And they’ve had huge social, cultural, and environmental impacts. Huge impacts on the criminalization of protests when communities oppose the imposition of these projects. …And violating the rights of Indigenous peoples. As well as the attacks against journalists who document these things in compliance with their role.

To give you some specific cases.

Equinox Gold – Los Filos mine in Eduardo Neri, Guerrero

One is the Los Filos in Guerrero. This is Equinox Gold, a Canadian company, and there is constant issues with Indigenous communities because of the environmental impacts and the ways it is affecting their access to water. There is also the presence of criminal groups. Human rights defenders who were demanding consultation and reparations have been threatened and harassed and have had threats against their lives. …The protection mechanism needs to respond to this in a community way to be effective. Unfortunately, today there’s a lot to do in the federal protection mechanism in terms of a community response for protection.

Fortuna Silver Mines – San José mine in San José del Progreso, Oaxaca

There is also El Progreso in Oaxaca that is linked to Fortuna mining, the Canadian company. There has been killings and attacks against human rights defenders, acts of criminalization, and also fragmentation of the community with those in favour of the mining initiative and those who are against. There is continued risk for the leaders and journalists who are documenting the impacts of this project. In this case there has been no sanctions and completely without justice. And so the protection mechanism has done nothing, there just doing palliative measures. So, one of the things we’ve said a lot, not to the mechanism specifically because there are lots of different bodies, and because the Attorney General’s office is also involved, but they need to be much more proactive in the investigations when violations have taken place. …When crimes are committed against defenders, they really need to push forward with investigations into that.

New Gold – Cerro de San Pedro mine in San Luis Potosí

And there’s San Pedro de Potosi which is linked to New Gold, another Canadian company, and there has been a long, long court case. They found in favour of the community. The aggression here is the court system. And so some don’t see it as an attack because they are not attacking the life of people, but it can be selling someone’s name, or attacking their economic viability, and also freedom. So, what we have said in this way, is that the mechanism should also be much more proactive in this sense. Coordinating with the public defence bodies when human rights defenders are being criminalized in this way and providing them with a much better defence, and also support to victims and making sure they have proper representation, and given them support in the costs that are involved in civil or criminal cases when they are criminalized in this way.

Common patterns

And so very common patterns. Projects that are imposed without any guarantees, criminalization of the defence of rights, a state response that is very fragmented. So when we are faced with this the protection mechanism is indispensable but at the moment it is completely failing, it needs to get stronger and it needs to get much more active and collaborate much better with the other bodies that are involved. It needs to be proactive in community, individual, and all of these different ways. It needs to be an integrated approach. Many of these risks are territorial and collective and it needs to recognize that and therefore the protection mechanism must cover these measures and not just individual protection measures.

In a country where 90 per cent of crimes against human rights defenders and journalists are not brought to justice, this injustice means there are no guarantees for non-repetition. They need to coordinate with other bodies in the state and also recognize the role of transnational companies, there needs to be things related to due diligence in terms of human rights, and so with megaprojects, such as the Canadian involvement in Mexico, they often happen in these areas of conflict, so you need this integrated policy to deal with it. They also need to seek to create situations in which human rights defenders and journalists can do their work safely. This isn’t a favour the state is giving them, it’s a state’s duty. The state needs to work together in all of its different instances to make sure this response actually protects human rights defenders.

What would it mean to actually integrate the protection mechanism into all of these different bodies? Environmental issues, environmental impact, consultation, identification of risks, all of the channeling of cases, all of these different bodies need to take a proactive role, they need to work together, for education, awareness raising, prevention and all these different things. If all of these act together, it can be stronger and also increase the willingness of the higher level bodies in the state to make sure investment, human rights, the rule of law, and protection can actually be promoted, and to ensure that human rights defenders and journalists can be safe in their work.”

To listen to this response in Spanish, go to the 52-minute mark here.

Video still from Twitch.

On February 12, Peace Brigades International-Canada collaborated with Peace Brigades International-Mexico and the Space of Civil Society Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC) to host a 90-minute webinar to help amplify the call to strengthen the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in Mexico.

The webinar included two human rights defenders – Elizabeth Mosqueda and Hugo Arreola – who participated in an advocacy visit to Ottawa in September 2025.

It also featured Mario Cardozo from Espacio OSC and Aleida Quintana from the National Network of Human Rights Defenders.

The moderator of the webinar was Javier Garate, a member of the Peace Brigades International-Canada Board of Directors.

To watch the video in Spanish, click here.

Para ver el webinar organizado por PBI-Canadá, PBI-México y Espacio OSC sobre el fortalecimiento del Mecanismo de Protección para personas defensoras de derechos humanos y periodistas en México, haga clic aquí.