I think that was a pretty exciting time for Canada, 2012, when Olivier De Schutter came here. He went across the country and met with many people. He finished with a report with a series of recommendations, which I say, with all due respect, has been repeatedly submitted to the senior civil servants who are working on Canada's food policy.
It has been raised at the Food Summit, and it will be raised again and again over the coming months. We put out five big ideas at the beginning of this process, and our first idea is that we should recognize the human right to food. Why? It's because it makes food a matter not of charity but of human dignity. If we don't recognize food as a human right, we will forever be going to the food bank solution of donating charitable food for those who cannot afford it.
When we signed on to the covenant, we did not say that overnight no one would be hungry. We said that we were committing, Canada as a country was committing, to progressively realizing the right to food. That would mean that there are fewer and fewer hungry people each year. Unfortunately, that's not what happened.
Olivier De Schutter's first recommendation was to have a right to food strategy. Well, this government announced a food policy, so we think that what we need to do is build the right to food inside that policy. Let us enunciate it clearly, as we have done for health care. We have stated in this country that health care is universal, it is free, accessible, transferable—and I'm not a Canada Health Act expert.
If we clearly state that food is a basic human right and that it is the intention of this government and further governments to realize that right for all Canadians without discrimination, I think we would be really making quite a break with the past, and it would allow all of us to buy into that vision and to work towards realizing it.
He also recommended the review of nutrition north, a universal school food program, and more government support for a diversity of agricultural practices. It's certainly worthwhile going back. It's not a long report; it's maybe 15 pages, with a page and a half of recommendations, and I think they're all still valid today.