Last Sunday, another Doukhobor hunger striker died. Mary Astaforoff, 71, was serving a 10-year jail term for setting a fire that destroyed four buildings at the Doukhobor Museum in Castlegar, B.C.

Fasting Doukhobor in Vancouver hospital

Monday, December 02, 1985

Vancouver BC -- Canadian Press VANCOUVER Mary Braun, a 65-year-old Sons of Freedom Doukhobor, is in Vancouver General Hospital on the 55th day of a hunger strike in protest against her seven-year sentence for arson.

Hospital officials and officials at Matsqui Prison would not comment on her condition.

Last Sunday, another Doukhobor hunger striker died. Mary Astaforoff, 71, was serving a 10-year jail term for setting a fire that destroyed four buildings at the Doukhobor Museum in Castlegar, B.C.

Mrs. Braun and 61-year-old Tina Zmaeff, who is also on the hunger strike that began Oct. 7, were sentenced in August to seven years in jail for burning a house near Grand Forks. Both are inmates at Matsqui Prison.

In a telephone call on Saturday, Mrs. Zmaeff told her family and representatives from several Doukhobor factions who implored her to start eating, that she would not end her fast.

Fred Makortoff, a member of the reform Doukhobors, which includes relatives of the two fasting women, said the families and a committee trying to solve the arson problem, want federal prison officials to allow a temporary release for the two women from prison on medical grounds.

The two fasting women and Mrs. Astaforoff spent many years in jail for various crimes including arson. In October, 1983, they received national attention when they were pardoned by then-solicitor-general Robert Kaplan, who was concerned about their deteriorating condition as a result of a 35- day hunger strike.

The women have not been force- fed because of a 1983 B.C. Court of Appeal ruling that the courts had no power to order provincial corrections officials to force-feed Mrs. Astaforoff, who was on a hunger strike at the time.