Family of Quebecer shot dead on cocoa plantation in Ecuador seeking answers

Relatives of a Quebec man shot dead on his plantation in rural Ecuador on the weekend say they know little about the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

Yvan Dionne, 56, was shot in the back of the neck and died at his cocoa and coffee plantation about 200 kilometres outside the capital, Quito.

Dionne’s sister-in-law, Denise Lavoie, said Tuesday the slaying occurred some time late Friday or early Saturday morning in the nearby fields.

“There were thieves who broke into the farm,” Lavoie, who is married to Dionne’s older brother Gilles, said from Rimouski, Que. “I don’t know what happened exactly, but these thieves opened fire.”

Lavoie says Dionne’s wife made the grisly discovery of her husband’s body near a river that borders the fields.

SOUND OFF

SOUND OFF: Removing bathroom doors at Barriere Secondary increases safety concerns

Apr 02, 2026

Looped In

LOOPED IN WITH NIKKI OMEN: April 2, 2026

Apr 02, 2026

SOUND OFF

SOUND OFF: Kamloops deserves the full story

Apr 01, 2026

“We’re hearing about a robbery, but what they wanted exactly, we don’t know,” Lavoie said.

Francois Lasalle, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, said in an email that consular officials at the Canadian embassy in Quito are gathering information and providing consular assistance to the family.

“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the Canadian Citizen who passed away in Ecuador,” Lasalle wrote, adding the department could provide no further information out of respect and due to privacy rules.

Dionne, 56, originally from Rimouski, spent years travelling and working as a humanitarian aid worker in Africa and South America, but had called Ecuador home for nearly two decades.

“He left town young — 22 or 23 — working in international co-operation with CECI (the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation,” Lavoie said. “He went to Africa and other countries and came back to Rimouski to do his studies in regional development.”

Lavoie, who has known Dionne since his birth, estimates her brother-in-law had lived in Ecuador for nearly 20 years, living in the capital before moving to the plantation he bought several years ago.

It had recently become productive after extensive work and Lavoie said she and Gilles planned to go to Ecuador to help when the harvest was plentiful.

Dionne never expressed any concerns for his safety in Ecuador, Lavoie said, noting he’d worked under more dangerous conditions in places like Congo.

Lavoie said they’d been told about corruption and a great divide between rich and poor in Ecuador. 

She added her brother-in-law was a good person and only tried to better the lives of those he met.

“He was a pacifist,” Lavoie said. “Yvan was someone who always tried to help, he worked well with others he always tried to help people like those who worked on his farm and were poor.”

Lavoie says Dionne’s two adult children were heading to Ecuador to be with their grieving mother. They and other close friends are gathering for Dionne’s funeral, scheduled for Wednesday in that country.

– Follow @sidhartha_b on Twitter.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press