Date: May 17th 2012

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UN Right to Food Mission to Canada: Update

The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Shutter, visited Canada from May 6 to 16th. Yesterday he released a preliminary report on what he found during his visit. Throughout his mission to Canada, he and his team met with the Government of Canada and key stakeholders related to the right to food, including Indigenous peoples’ representatives, civil society organizations and a wide spectrum of organizations and experts involved in food issues.

Click here to read the Special Rapporteur's preliminary report.

Some quotes from the report:

• "A growing number of people across Canada remain unable to meet their basic food needs. In 2007/2008, approximately 7.7 per cent of households in Canada reported experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity. Approximately 1.92 million people in Canada, aged 12 or older, lived in food insecure households in 2007/2008 and a staggering 1 in 10 families, 10.8 per cent, with at least one child under the age of six were food insecure during the same period."
• "The Special Rapporteur was disconcerted by the deep and severe food insecurity faced by aboriginal peoples across Canada living both on- and off-reserve in remote and urban areas."
• "17.8 per cent of First Nations adults (age 25–39) and 16.1 per cent of First Nations adults (age 40–54) reported being hungry but did not eat due to lack of money for food in 2007/2008."

Food Secure Canada (FSC) has compiled a list of media articles covering the UN Special Rapporteur's visit to Canada. Click here for more articles and links.

FSC press releases and op eds:

• UN investigation underlines need for national food policy, by FSC Director Diana Bronson [The Hill Times, May 14, PDF, 675KB]
• UN Envoy told Staggering Statistics on the Right to Food in Canada [FSC press release, May 11, PDF, 1.37 MB]
• UN to investigate Canada's broken food system, by Diana Bronson [Winnipeg Free Press, May 5]
• Hunger is Not a Game [FSC press release, May 1, PDF, 93 KB]

Other media coverage of the Right to Food mission:

• UN food envoy provokes Ottawa with findings on hunger and poor diet in Canada [The Telegram, May 16]
• Hunger groups call for strategy in wake of UN report [CBC News, May 16]
• Kenney lashes out at UN over food security criticism [CTV News, video and article, May 16]
• Diana Bronson, Executive Director of Food Secure Canada on CTV News [CTV News, May 16]
• One minister meets with UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food while another blasts him [Canada.com, May 16]
• Childhood hunger is a Canadian public health crisis [The Globe and Mail, May 14]
• UN probes Alexis food supply [The Edmonton Journal, May 14]
• Aboriginal access to food under scrutiny [The Edmonton Journal, May 13]
• All Canadians Have a Right to Food [The Huffington Post, May 12]
• UN monitor probing Canada's food supply issues [CTV Winnipeg, May 7]
• The UN in Canada: bringing together the Eaters and the Producers [Rabble.ca, May 7]
• The UN Right To Food Mission Is Visiting ... Canada? [George Stroumboulopoulos, May 6]
• Right to Food - CBC interview with FSC [CBC, May 5]
• Cabinet ministers say no to meeting with UN food envoy [Postmedia News, May 4]
• Canada first wealthy nation to be probed by UN food monitor [Postmedia News, May 2]
• UN to get up-close look at struggling reserves [Winnipeg Free Press, April 26]

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