Environmental activist Howard Breen, 68, has been released from Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and is on his 25th day of a hunger strike. He had been without water for 50 hours at the time he was admitted to the hospital.
Breen’s efforts are a part of a broader protest by the Save Old Growth activist group which seek to force the B.C. government into action to protect the 1,000-year-old old growth forests particularly in the Fairy Creek watershed, which is on the land of the Pacheedaht Nation. Only 2.7 per cent of B.C’s old growth forests remain.
On Monday, April 25, Breen said that he was feeling better, having gotten his first full eight hours sleep since April 1.
“The Emergency Room physician was very reassuring that the course of action I was on was greater than myself,” he said in an interview with rabble.ca. “The government is more concerned with numbers than they are with lives.”
At hour 50 of his water fast, Breen, who has a “death-watch” team monitoring his health, began experiencing blurred vision, loss of balance, pain in his kidneys and arrhythmia.
“Clearly, this was proof that the government was prepared to let me die, just like they are willing to do with all of the other families and children in this province with their climate policies,” Breen said.
Demands for public meeting rejected
Breen and fellow Save Old Growth activist Brent Eichler said that they would end their hunger strike if B.C. Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Katrine Conroy and Premier John Horgan agreed to a recorded public meeting with them. Eichler was on the 31st day of his hunger strike on Monday.
On Earth Day, Friday, April 22 both Breen and Eichler received a call from minister Conroy who urged them to end their hunger strike, but also rejected the idea of a public meeting. Breen criticized the B.C. government for having time to meet with forest industry lobbyists, but not with activists trying to protect the environment.
“This is a systemic problem with the Horgan government,” Breen said. “It was too much to ask for them for a meeting under the threat of death.”
“They feel threatened by anything they could term a ‘media circus,'” Breen added.
More join hunger strike in solidarity
Breen said that the hunger strike is growing through other supporters of Save Old Growth. On Sunday, April 24, Save Old Growth announced that at noon that day, 25 people would begin a hunger strike of their own in solidarity with Breen and Eichler. Breen said that by Monday, that number had grown to nearly 50.
“I’m going on a solidarity fast at noon today to support Howard and Brent. So are 15 others, and the count is rising. This is a climate emergency but the BC government acts like it’s business as usual,” reads a statement from Kim Trainor, a supporter of Save Old Growth on Facebook.
Breen has called on member of the public to make a citizen’s arrest of minister Conroy and Premier Horgan as they attend the Council of Forest Industries conference in Vancouver next week.
Protests around the protection of the old growth forest at Fairy Creek have been ongoing since 2020, and in the summer of 2021 a large blockade of Fairy Creek took place. According to Save Old Growth, over 1,100 people have been arrested in relation to that and other solidarity protests across the province.
On Monday, a solidarity protest began at the office of Vancouver-Fairview MLA George Heyman which touted the social media hashtag #MeetWithHoward.
“Old Growth Forests act as an essential carbon sink, they hold the soil and reduce the risk and severity of floods and landslides, they act as a natural barrier to wild fires, are home to many endangered species and are culturally and spiritually significant ancestors of these lands,” reads a statement on the Save Old Growth website.
rabble reached out to minister Conroy’s office but did not receive a response at time of publication.
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