We talk about the right to free speech and we challenge racial discrimination, but we don’t often speak of economic and social rights or challenge the loss of dignity. It is high time this conversation took flight in Canada. Last week the UN Rapporteur on the Right to Food landed in Ontario and Food Bank Canada’s “Hunger Awareness Week” was launched. This set the stage for a great discussion on the right to food and why people are using charitable services 30 years after they were first opened temporarily.
Canada Without Poverty looks into this issue further in a blog on the Huffington Post. Here is an excerpt:
“People living with low-income — whether from paid employment, social assistance or both — are forced to do more with less money. The majority of people living in poverty are employed, with 25 per cent of Canadians working low wage jobs and earning less than about $13 an hour. This is a rate that will barely keep individuals out of poverty, and it highlights the fact that this is not about accessing food, but rather having the means to purchase it.
Even Food Banks Canada (FBC) has acknowledged this issue in their 2011 Hunger Count report stating, “Low income, whether in the short or long term, is at the root of the persistent need for charitable food assistance in Canada.” Food banks had never been seen in Canada before the 1980s and when introduced in 1981 were intended as an emergency measure only, and certainly not as a long-term solution to address hunger. The Canadian Association of Food Banks (the precursor to FBC) had a three year mandate when they were first established, but continued when it was clear hunger in Canada was not going away…
…Missing from this conversation about hunger is that everyone in Canada has a right to food. When the federal government ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, it agreed to key provisons including Article 11(1) which articulates the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and Article 2(1) which obliges states to use the maximum amount of resources necessary to fulfill these rights.
This human right to adequate food means that states are not obligated to give out free food — but to make sure food is affordable and accessible. Canada is required to fulfill the right not only as a moral imperative, but because of the commitment it made by ratifying the international treaty.”
To read the full blog go to the Huffington Post Canada website.
