Relatives of a Quebecer living in Ecuador say he has been killed under suspicious circumstances.
Yvan Dionne was shot in the back of the neck and killed at his cocoa and coffee plantation over the weekend in a rural area about 200 kilometres outside the capital, Quito.
Dionne's sister-in-law, Denise Lavoie, says the slaying occurred some time late Friday or early Saturday morning in the nearby fields.
Lavoie says Dionne's wife made the grisly discovery of her husband's body.
Dionne spent years travelling and working as an aid worker in Africa and South America, but had called Ecuador home for several years.
Dionne, originally from Rimouski, Que., was 56.
The Canadian government says officials on the ground are trying to gather information about Dionne's death.
Lavoie says Dionne's two adult children were heading to Ecuador to be with their grieving mother.