Protesters set up stocks to symbolize an old-fashioned ‘punishment’ for their continued criticisms of B.C.’s forest policy.
Extinction Rebellion protesters and supporters demonstrated in front of Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcolmson’s office on Dunsmuir Street downtown on Wednesday, April 27.
Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo spokesman Vic Brice was the one in the stocks.
“I’m guilty of attempting to show the government’s true face and their intransigence in dealing with the climate crisis that is unfolding in front of us,” he said. “They speak with a lot of weasel words, but their actions speak louder.”
Brice recently started a hunger strike in solidarity with fellow Save Old Growth protesters Howard Breen and Brent Eichler. He said he hadn’t been planning to do so, but when B.C. Forests Minister Katrine Conroy phoned the hunger strikers last week and nixed a public meeting, “that just aggravated the bejeebers out of me,” Brice said.
Conroy posted on social media on Friday, April 22, that she had “meaningful conversations” with the hunger-striking protesters.
“I conveyed my distress for their well-being while listening directly to their concerns. I urged them to protect their health as we continue the important work to protect B.C.’s old-growth forests,” Conroy noted.
In a press release earlier this month, the B.C. government noted that it is working in partnership with First Nations on logging deferrals in old-growth forests while developing “a new approach” to sustainable forest management. The province says deferrals have been implemented on nearly 1.7 million hectares of old-growth forest.
Brice said the consultations about deferrals are “a tiny step in the right direction” but questioned whether old-growth forest protection is a priority for those involved in the process.
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