One minister meets with UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food while another blasts him

Leona Aglukkaq is meeting with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food Wednesday as he wraps up his first ever mission to a developed country.

The about-face comes after the federal government initially declined to set up any meetings with cabinet ministers as part of Olivier De Schutter’s mission. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, charged with coordinating meetings with federal officials, set up meetings with senior bureaucrats but no cabinet ministers.