Community activist Am Johal was helping out at a Vancouver homeless shelter on Christmas Eve in 2008 when he had an idea. A few days later, on December 29, he began the first of a series of weeklong hunger strikes to call attention to Canada’s lack of a national housing strategy.

Since then, more than 90 Canadians from various walks of life have taken up the hunger-strike relay’s symbolic wooden spoon, spending seven days on a liquid diet to demand adequate housing for all.

The rolling hunger strike will mark its last day on June 15, in its 76th week. That’s when Johal and a group of Vancouver activists will congregate on the steps of Parliament in Ottawa to urge members of the House of Commons to approve a bill put forward by Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies that calls for the creation of a national housing program.

“Everyone who participated came to the issue from different perspectives, whether they had either gone through personal experiences with housing and homelessness, or have worked with others who have gone through housing and homelessness issues,” Johal told the Straight. “Other people wanted to recognize their privilege, and intervene and support the debate. So we had lawyers and doctors and professors take part as well. What’s been interesting for me is just the sheer diversity of support.”

Johal and his group will get a sendoff at Vancouver’s CRAB Park on Sunday (June 6) in conjunction with the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the On to Ottawa Trek, composed of striking British Columbians who were asking for work and better job conditions during the Great Depression.

The workers hopped on railway boxcars in Vancouver on June 3, 1935, and their numbers swelled along the way. But they were stopped in Regina by the RCMP. A riot ensued, and a number of leaders were arrested.

The event will take place from 1 to 3 p.m.