UN to get up-close look at struggling reserves

A United Nations envoy will visit two northern reserves next month on a fact-finding mission about food and flooding.

Olivier De Schutter, the UN's special rapporteur on the right to food, will visit God's River First Nation on the east side of the province as well as the Garden Hill reserve nearby. De Schutter, a Harvard-educated human rights lawyer who investigates and makes recommendations on food issues, is slated to be in Manitoba May 10 to May 12 as part of a cross-Canada trip.

"What the rapporteur is going to see is a transition phase where we're relying less on a traditional diet and more on processed, less healthy food," said Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak. "Where I come from at Pine Creek First Nation, there is no fish left in the lake and there is no moose to hunt on the mountain. We have to make our purchases at the grocery store just like everyone else."