Long-term effects of hunger strike on young people unclear, says nutrition prof as McMaster protest continues

UPDATE:  The students have ended their eight-day hunger strike, but have vowed to intensify their efforts to get the university to reverse its decision to install four natural gas-powered generators on Cootes Drive.

McMaster University should negotiate with the group of students on hunger strike before any long-term effects from the strike are felt, a Toronto-based nutritional sciences professor says.

The students, members of the McMaster Divestment Project, began their hunger strike a week ago, demanding that McMaster University reverse its decision to install four natural gas-powered generators on Cootes Drive. 

"It seems essential that the university open negotiations now so that the hunger strikers can desist," David Jenkins, a nutritional sciences professor at the University of Toronto, told CBC Hamilton.

"The climate change issue is not going away."

Jenkins said hunger strike data is difficult to come by, but pointed to a 1981 hunger strike in Northern Ireland as an example of just how far some people will take it. That hunger strike, in support of Irish Republican Army political prisoners, lasted 53 days.

"After 50 days, one may see deaths. One month may be tolerated but with these young people, one does not know what the long-term ill effects will be," Jenkins said.

Six students began the hunger strike on March 20, but two had to bow out for health reasons, while another had to drop out to observe Ramadan. There are four students still on hunger strike — three of them since March 20 and another who joined on March 23. 

"As the hunger strike drags on, I think I'm getting much, much more tired … it feels like my body is breaking down," said 21-year-old Navin Garg, one of the protesting students, on Monday.

"We are still monitoring our own vitals, but I think we're going to try to schedule an appointment [with a doctor] for today or tomorrow because now we're starting to get into the territory where it could be a big problem," they told CBC Hamilton.

McMaster public relations manager Wade Hemsworth told CBC Hamilton late last week that the university has had discussions with the students throughout the hunger strike and continued to ask them to stop putting their health at risk.

"The university has made a lot of progress in divestment and our net carbon zero goals and the hunger strike does not change the due diligence that we have to undertake as we make critical investment and other decisions," Hemsworth said.

Garg said before embarking on the hunger strike, they researched what could happen to their bodies, referring to "a lot of documents, mostly from correctional services because prisons are the main place where hunger strikes generally happen." 

"I think the second week is kind of the point at which you're entering higher risk of physical harm, which is something that we're definitely taking into consideration. It's when your muscles are starting to break down more and you're becoming more and more cognitively impaired, and your immune system becomes weaker, so it does escalate once you reach that time," Garg said.

Remove generators now, students say

Garg still hopes McMaster will meet their demand and commit to removing the generators, which are still under construction, and to divest from the fossil fuel industry by 2025. 

"We're concerned that they think that if they cede to our demands that there will be more hunger strikes. And we just want to make clear to them and we need them to understand, as soon as possible, that if they were accountable and transparent with us this never would have happened," Garg said. 

"And they'll never need to worry about this in the future if they listen to student voices, because no one would do this for anything less than a existential cause."

"We appreciate that McMaster is trying and it is something, but there is an important distinction between something and something that is good enough," Garg added.

Follow precautions 'many activists have set out before them'

Hamiltonian Akira Ourique was among scores of young people who, in 2020, embarked on a hunger strike against a proposed oilsands mine in Alberta.

Ourique, 21, said the group started preparing a month in advance for that strike, gradually tapering their caloric intake, and getting mentally and physically ready.

In the end, their fast lasted only for a few hours, as Teck Resources announced it was withdrawing its application to build the Frontier oilsands mine.

Ourique says some of the McMaster hunger strikers are his friends and, now in the second week of the strike, he's a bit worried for them.

"I find what they're doing incredibly inspiring. Just listen to your body but do what you think is right," Ourique said. 

"Try to keep your body temperature as regulated as possible... If they are following the precautions that many, many activists have set out before them, and pay attention to their bodies' vitals, I believe that they will be alright."

McMaster Divestment Project spokesperson Cordelia McConnell said a solidarity rally held on Friday "had quite a big turnout," with more than 150 people taking part, including Hamilton Centre MPP Sarah Jama and city councillor Alex Wilson.

New solidarity letter sent to university

On Monday, a letter signed by an honorary degree recipient, faculty member, emeritus faculty, and former faculty of McMaster University was sent to the university's president and board of governors.

In the letter, the group called the students "courageous," and said the university board of governors and administrators have ignored and downplayed their call for the university to make evidence-based decisions.

"The university is taking the easiest path to increasing its incomes, without making the significant adverse health consequences it is creating a determinant in its decisions," they wrote in the letter.

Hemsworth previously told CBC Hamilton the generators would reduce demand on Ontario's electricity grid at peak times and help the school save money in the long run. 

The student group meanwhile argued that in the 13 years before the project pays itself off, it will produce at least 8,900 tonnes of carbon.