Malli is concerned that these kinds of comments and the subsequent reaction sidetrack people from the real issues. Anybody who works in this field knows how contentious these issues are and how tough it is to tackle them without having people's backs up. Grandstanding or sweeping statements aren't conducive to dialogue when there is already a discomfort in communities in approaching these problems. For example, with this incident people are so focussed on the falsehood of cross burnings, that they find it easy to forget that real incidents of equal, lesser or more importance still exist and are not limited to any one community. Media discussions also become limited to whether all of Prince George is racist or not whereas no community is racist or not racist in its entirety.
Racism exists as elements in any society.
In fact, the community of Prince George has taken tremendous strides in addressing issues of racism and hate in the form of a city-appointed intercultural committee and an affiliated task force for hate activities. The irony is that Fry had met with the latter just in January. The task force, made up of the RCMP, the chamber of commerce and ministerial associations, was formed in response to a couple of events in the community. According to Marlies Greulich, executive director of the Multicultural Heritage Society of Prince George, the concerns included a story in the local paper 18 months ago of a young man claiming to be an Aryan Nation leader, tensions in the city as a result of Prince George being a detention site for Chinese boat migrants and the debate around the native land claims process. She says that Prince George has a large native Indian population, which is the most vulnerable group to racism.