Photo: The Canadian Press
Howard Breen
UPDATE: 13:45
A British Columbian man says he was briefly hospitalized on the 24th day of a hunger strike to protest old logging, but plans to run out of food by the end of the month before joining others in escalating actions against the government. .
Howard Breen, 68, said the “death surveillance team” at his home in Nanaimo had noticed that he was experiencing blurred vision, loss of balance due to low blood pressure and back pain around his kidneys before an ambulance was called early. Sunday morning.
He said a doctor and his daughter, a cardiologist, decided late Saturday that he needed medical attention because he was at risk of kidney or heart damage.
“We had a vote and I abstained,” he said Sunday. “All I said is, ‘Please let me go as far as I can.'”
Breen, a member of the Save Old Growth group, said his condition worsened after he stopped drinking fluids on Thursday, but returned to drinking herbal teas after spending three hours in hospital.
His decision to receive medical treatment is “based on science,” he said, “something the current government is not doing in terms of climate and forests.”
Breen said Forest Minister Catherine Conroy spoke to him and his colleague, hunger striker Brent Eichler, on the phone on Friday, but declined to hold a Zoom meeting to be recorded and made available to the public.
Conroy said in a statement Saturday that he called on both men to stay healthy while the province works to protect old forests.
The Forest Department did not respond to a request for comment from Conroy on Sunday.
Breen said activists were planning a “civilian arrest” of Conroy at a conference of the Forest Industry Council in Vancouver next week.
Prime Minister John Horgan could also be targeted as part of the group’s efforts to stop all old trees they consider “crimes against humanity and nature,” he said.
“This is not the physical execution of an arrest warrant for a citizen,” Breen said.
Police will be called to make the arrests, the same tactics he and other members of the Extinction Rebellion group tried against then-Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna in 2019 when she issued a statement in the Victoria area.
However, Breen said he was arrested by police after removing some of the zippers that these officers used to detain protesters. He was not charged because the purpose was for the police to make the arrest, Breen added.
“In the minds and hearts of Canadians, we reinforce the mind-altering way of thinking that we are empowered to stand up for our democracy and our rights.”
Thirty-three other Save Old Growth activists plan to join the hunger strike by the end of April, Breen said.
Two members of the group were arrested last week after allegedly chaining themselves to a 227-kilogram barrel placed in the middle of the Trans-Canadian Highway on Vancouver Island.
“We allow these types of actions only with the most experienced activists, because it is not the weak hearts who can be so vulnerable,” Breen said, adding that all actions aimed at achieving the “highest level of success” will remain nonviolent. .
Save Old Growth activists blocked other major highways and bridges, angering some drivers.
Eichler, 57, who said he had been on a 31-day hunger strike, said the group did not want to stop all BC entries.
“We need to have houses for people and things like that. But we can’t continue to cut back on the very small amount of old growth that’s left in our ecosystem,” he said.
“Once they are gone, it will be like the fever (fishing) on the east coast. Governments have been warned by scientists that the fever will go away. We still don’t have commercial fishing in Eastern Canada, so a day, decades later. “
Earlier this month, Conroy announced that the British Columbia government was working with the First Nations to postpone logging in more than a million hectares of old forests at risk of permanent loss, an area larger than 4,100 Stanley Parks.
UPDATE: 10:25
A group protesting against the old logging in British Columbia says one of its members was hospitalized on the 24th day of a hunger strike.
Save Old Growth says Howard Breen’s “death surveillance team” notes that he is experiencing blurred vision, loss of balance, back pain around the kidneys and possible heart problems.
It says one of Breen’s daughters, a nurse, examined him at his home in Nanaimo and called an ambulance.
Breen said on Saturday that he would continue his protest until Forest Minister Catherine Conroy agreed to a recorded meeting at Zoom, which will be available to the public.
Conroy said in a statement that she spoke with Brien and his hunger strike colleague Brent Eichler on Friday and told them to take care of their health while the province works to protect the old forests.
Save Old Growth said in a statement that Eichler began his protest 31 days ago.
ORIGINAL: 8 in the morning
More than three weeks after a hunger strike and days of fluid refusal in hopes of a public meeting with the province’s forestry minister, climate activist Howard Breen is prepared for the worst.
“I feel sad that I have to bring this to an end,” Breen said on Saturday from his home in Nanaimo, where he is under strict bail conditions in protest this month.
Breen, 68, a member of Extinction Rebellion and Save Old Growth, said he was dehydrated and experiencing brain fog and weakness after he stopped drinking at midnight on Thursday. He hasn’t eaten since April 1.
“I don’t know how this will end or what will happen, but many people have already expressed their deep sorrow if something happened to me, including my children,” he said.
Breen is trying to put pressure on the provincial government to stop old logging and the export of unprocessed logs. He also wants online “equal broadcasting” of opinions between the Minister of Forestry and her advisers and independent experts.
“Yes, I love trees, but we will never achieve a climate goal unless we start protecting our only major terrestrial carbon sink, and that is our forests,” he said.
Forest Minister Catherine Conroy called Breen on Friday and the two talked about postponing the government’s 1.7 million hectares of old forests and creating new parks – after which Breen closed.
Conroy said she had “meaningful conversations” with Breen and his starving colleague Brent Eichler.
“I expressed my suffering for their well-being while listening directly to their concerns. I called on them to take care of their health while we continue the important work for the protection of old forests, “she said in an e-mail statement from the Ministry of Forestry.
The province appointed an independent two-member commission in 2019 to review old growth policies and also consult with the public.
Conroy announced earlier this month that BC is working with First Nations to postpone logging in more than a million hectares of old forest at risk of permanent loss, an area larger than 4,100 Stanley Parks.
Conroy told Breen that he would not hold the meeting he had insisted on, and advised him to end the strike.
Instead, he said, the hunger strike – which began as a 25-day protest – is now “indefinite”.
Breen quoted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as saying that those who would expand fossil fuel production and logging, not environmental activists, were radical extremists.
“I am not a radical extremist, [Premier] John Horgan is and [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau, “said Breen. “We have not yet achieved the climate goal … We are no longer looking at 50 years from now, we are on the verge of collapse right now.”
Breen said the actions taken by Save Old Growth, including recent blockades of bridges and major roads, point to the severity of the “climate emergency” related to logging. They want to stop all ancient logging in the countryside.
He denied that some commuters were angry about the group’s tactics, saying there was widespread support. Two people were detained on Wednesday after allegedly strapped to a 227-pound barrel in the middle of the Trans-Canadian Highway near Langford during an afternoon trip.
Members of Save Old Growth are among more than 1,000 people who have been arrested at the Fairy Creek watershed near Port Renfrew for allegedly violating a blockade ban.
The BC Supreme Court has heard about 400 of them have been charged with criminal contempt.
Breen said the RCMP had arrested him elsewhere for other protests and that he was currently facing 12 charges.
He was arrested on April 7 after sticking to the doors of the Royal Bank of Canada in Nanaimo, an action related to the Coastal GasLink pipeline project in northern British Columbia. He spent about a week in jail and is now under house arrest and on $ 30,000 bail.
He was also one of three people standing at the end of the alley of the prime minister’s home in 2020, intending to make a civil arrest to prevent Horgan from the budget announcement. Horgan was not at home at the time, and his wife was reportedly horrified. Over the next few weeks, the prime minister denounced protesters for crossing the border.
Breen’s three older children asked their father not to risk his life and made sure he was watched day and night by “death watchers.” His two daughters are nurses.
“They had a lot of challenges with my civil disobedience,” he said.
Breen said he is doing what he is doing for his children and for all the children in the world they represent, children who at the moment can only be called “victims of the climate,” he said.
Some supporters in a conversation with Breen on Thursday night asked him to resign.
It was probably the most difficult moment of the last few weeks for people to express their love for what …
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