From interrupting classes to die-ins and hunger strikes, new climate activism group Save Old Growth’s activity on UBC’s campus has sparked both support and ire from the UBC community.
Save Old Growth was formed six months ago. It’s geared towards demanding the preservation of BC old growth forests, which are huge carbon sinks vital for ecological survival. Whether you stayed up to date on the protests at Fairy Creek last summer, saw green and yellow stickers stuck to walls around campus, or stood in backlogged traffic before you drove by people-blocked intersections and bridges, chances are you have already heard of Save Old Growth.
“It's in the name of it,” said UBC graduate Ian Weber, a central coordinator for the organization. “We are demanding an end to all old growth logging in British Columbia through legislative change immediately…We want to do this through [nonviolent] civil resistance.”
Its formation comes in the wake of the province experiencing climate change-correlated record-breaking freak weather conditions.
“We saw this summer…595 people died in the heat dome, and flood. We saw the floods just a few months ago, and how devastating that was, and which caused hundreds of 1000s of deaths of livestock,” explained Weber. “And yet the BC NDP government continues to cut down some of the biggest on-land carbon sinks.”
On campus, Save Old Growth has disrupted classes and conducted a “die-in.” A few UBC students even participated in Save Old Growth’s hunger strike.
It’s been about one month since Brent Eichler, a member of the Save Old Growth campaign, stopped eating to demand a public meeting with Katrine Conroy, minister of forests.
Second-year geography and political science student Sabrina Qistina also went on hunger strike.
“Hunger striking is such a sophisticated and intimate and very different way of protesting,” she said. Qistina fasted for five days, but found it did not compromise her energy. “There's no arrest, you're putting your body on the line in a different way that’s not … very visual for others to see. It's something that we use and feel and express on [our] own.”
Hunger striking is by no means a new method of protest. Dr. David Tindall of the UBC department of sociology said hunger striking can be a way of demonstrating “a high level of commitment to the cause that one is involved in.”
PhD environmental history candidate Henry John added that it can also generate a lot of media coverage.
“People were hunger striking in 1991 around logging in a place called Walbran Valley. They were hunger striking in 1993 over Clayoquot Sound … previously the biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. [That record] was broken last year by Fairy Creek,” John said.
Both John and Tindall cited Gandhi fasting against British imperialism and political disputes over Northern Ireland in the 1980s as strong cases of effective uses of hunger striking in the recent past to catalyze government action.
Weber of Save Old Growth said that the group was inspired by these successful strikes.
Clashes with Campus Security
Beyond hunger strikes, Save Old Growth has become a polarizing force between students and staff alike.
After a string of class disruptions at UBC in March by Save Old Growth protesters perpetuating their message, Director of Campus Security Harry Hackl sent a letter to Save Old Growth on March 10, writing that such altercations can result in people in the classroom fearing for their safety.
“By suddenly bursting into crowded classrooms and shouting, particularly when carrying objects and wearing balaclavas or other masks, you create legitimate fear which could result in panic,” he wrote.
However for Weber, Save Old Growth is not concerned about losing support this way.
“You're either … engaged in civil resistance or you're not. And if we lose people's support, it doesn't matter because they're still doing nothing for us whether they're indifferent or don't like us.”
Despite some backlash from the public at UBC and around Vancouver, Weber said that with each disruption, there were usually a few students who reached out in support.
To Weber, this is all the campaign really needs to make a difference.
“That is just the nature of it. That's the only way we can truly recruit, [is] if we're actually doing things that are transgressive and disruptive, because we can't just do this quietly anymore. We've been doing petitions and backdrops for like 30 years, and carbon dioxide has just been going up and up and up and we need to stop right now.”
Beyond the context of UBC, Weber says the campaign plans to continue getting their message across to as many people as possible.
“The next few months are going to be wild.”