THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017 VOL. 74, NO. 21
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MATT PREPROST PHOTO
Volunteers with the Fort St. John Multicultural Society show off their dragon and lion costumes in Centennial Park on May 20. Dancers will don the costumes as part of Canada Day parade festivities in Fort St. John, society founder Alan Yu says. Both the dragon and lion dances figure prominently in Chinese culture, and the parade will mark the formal debut of the society. From left: Shu Abe, Yoshi Takahashi, Tak Abe, Alyssa Yu, and Don Ryan, stand with dancers in costume.
‘Narrow-minded’:
Derogatory graffiti condemned, scrubbed clean CONTACT US
MATT PREPROST editor@ahnfsj.ca
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Cultural groups and service providers in Fort St. John are calling it hurtful, narrow-minded, ignorant, and unacceptable. While police have opened an investigation into derogatory graffiti targeting the Sikh and Jewish communities at the Peace River Lookout, the spray painted slurs and swastikas were quickly denounced and scrubbed clean last week. “It’s not nice,” said Nirankar Sidhu, a committee member of the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Fort St. John, after being shown pictures of profanity and the slur “ragheads” having been spray painted together repeatedly on the concrete barricades at the popular recreation spot for tourists and locals. “Everybody has a religion. I respect my religion, I respect other religions too.” “Today they did that, tomorrow they can do something else,” he added. For cultural service providers such as S.U.C.C.E.S.S., which provides immigration supports services in the region, the graffiti is a doubleedged sword—should it be
MATT PREPROST PHOTO
Carlos and Anton Yu were at the Peace River Lookout on Saturday, May 20 to clean up derogatory graffiti aimed at the Sikh and Jewish communities.
ignored, or should it become a focal point of discussion? “It’s always a small minority that creates the biggest noise,” Regional Manager Kim Strandberg said. “My personal take on it would be to give it as little attention as possible, because the more light you shine on it
the more people start getting into a debate about it and become more divisive, I think, on the topic.” Fear-mongering and ignorance go hand-in-hand, and the scrawls should not be taken as a reflection of the entire city, Strandberg said. “Minorities, regardless of
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race, religion, or gender, are a vulnerable group in our community,” she said. “Absolutely, this is hurtful. But I want to add it’s not indicative or reflective of our community at all. It’s reflective of one person’s ignorance.” See GRAFFITI on A8
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