3 activists start hunger strike over climate change, old-growth logging

Vancouver -

Three members of Extinction Rebellion Vancouver are starting a hunger strike over climate change and old-growth logging, and say they won’t end the strike until they get a meeting with politicians.

Extinction Rebellion, an international grassroots organization, is known for its direct action tactics to raise awareness about the climate crisis.

In a statement, the group says the three people from the Vancouver chapter are going on a hunger strike to “demand appropriate action on old-growth logging and climate change.”

The hunger strikers will be gathering at 401 Burrard St. on Sunday, and plan to return to the location each day without eating until they get a meeting with B.C. Premier John Horgan, B.C. Minister of Forestry Katrine Conroy and federal Minister of Environment Jonathan Wilkinson.

“The purpose of the meeting will be to have a respectful dialogue on the state of old growth logging and establish a citizens assembly to oversee the reduction of carbon emissions to net zero by 2025,” reads the statement.

The hunger strike is in solidarity with the protestors and land defenders who have been taking action to protect old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, including in the Ditidaht and Pacheedaht territories.

On Saturday, members of the group occupied an intersection also in protest of old-growth logging.

The group has been calling on the B.C. government to permanently stop all logging in the Fairy Creek watershed, an area of old-growth forest in southwestern Vancouver Island.

The province has agreed to defer old growth logging on 2,000 hectares of Indigenous territory for two years, after a request from three Vancouver Island First Nations – the Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht, and Pacheedaht.