By Rochelle Baker, Abbotsford Times

Debate in Abbotsford around gender preferences in children is surfacing after media reports about a U.S. fertility clinic that advertised the sex selection in an Indo-Canadian newspaper.

An ad for the Washington Center for Reproductive Medicine appeared in the Indo-Canadian Voice, in print and online, telling prospective clients they could create the family they want, “boy or girl,” using reproductive technologies.

The clinic performs biopsies on embryos slated for in vitro fertilization and tests their DNA to determine the sex.

Selected embryos are then implanted in the mother’s uterus.

The process, known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), will “virtually guarantee successful gender selection,” according to the centre’s website.

Manpreet Grewal, manager of multicultural and immigrant integration programs at Abbotsford Community Services, said the ad plays to a cultural bias within the Indo-Canadian community to have sons.

“Everybody knows that there’s a preference for boys in Asian cultures,” said Grewal.

April 27, 2012 – 2:56pm By STEVE BRUCE Court Reporter

Decoda Levon White, 18, is handcuffed by sheriff’s deputies Friday after appearing in court on charges from an April 14 shooting at a Halifax barbershop.

A Halifax teenager accused of shooting two people at a barbershop April 14 is on the hunt for yet another lawyer.

Dartmouth lawyer Patrick MacEwen appeared in Halifax provincial court Friday with Decoda Levon White, 18, who faces 13 charges, including two counts of attempted murder.

White had earlier been represented by Brian Smith, also of Dartmouth.

MacEwen informed the court that he wouldn’t be able to stay on the case either.

“I had been retained by Mr. White’s family but, after reviewing the file, it appears my office has a conflict with it,” MacEwen said.

The lawyer asked that the case be adjourned for a couple of weeks so the family can contact other legal counsel.

Judge Bill Digby scheduled the case to return to court May 16.

White is being held at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.

In addition to the attempted murder charges, he faces two counts each of discharging a firearm with intent to endanger a life and pointing a firearm and seven other gun-related offences.

 By STEVE BRUCE Court Reporter

Jerrell Ervin Shephard

A young man accused of shooting a boy at the Dartmouth Sportsplex bus terminal on New Year’s Day has elected to be tried by a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge and jury.

Jerrell Ervin Shephard, 18, of no fixed address, made the election Thursday, when he appeared in Dartmouth provincial court with lawyer Alfie Seaman.

Shephard faces 16 charges, including attempted murder and two counts of discharging a firearm with the intent to wound or endanger the life of a person.

Judge Frank Hoskins booked three consecutive Fridays in the fall – Sept. 21, Sept. 28 and Oct. 5 – for a preliminary inquiry.

Shephard, who has not applied for bail, will remain in custody at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.

A 16-year-old boy from Porters Lake was shot twice Jan. 1 at about 12:30 a.m. after an argument with a young man who wanted to buy a bargain-store earring he was wearing. One of the bullets struck the boy in the head. The other hit him in the chest.

Police announced Jan. 3 that they were looking for Shephard, who grew up in Lakeside outside Halifax. He was arrested Jan. 6 at the office of a Dartmouth lawyer who brokered his surrender to police.

News Services

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says he supports extending biometric ID requirements to permanent residents and would consider amending his current omnibus immigration bill to make it happen.

“I think in principle, we should be doing everything we reasonably can to identify visitors or immigrants and ensure they don’t represent a threat to Canada’s safety, so biometrics is the best technical tool at our disposal and I think in principle, that it should be applied to not just temporary but also permanent residents,” Kenney said Thursday after testifying before a Commons committee reviewing Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration Act.

After hinting at it during the meeting, he confirmed the government was “considering” amending the bill to ensure it covers permanent residents.

Accused Nazi living as Quebec beekeeper

ORMSTOWN, QUE.—Propped up by a shovel that acts as his cane, Vladimir Katriuk putters about his wooded lot in rural Quebec, caring for his bees and appearing to have few worries other than this season’s honey yield.

But a prominent Jewish human-rights organization insists there’s much more to the cordial 91-year-old beekeeper — whom they allege is of the world’s most-wanted Nazi war criminals.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center recently ranked Katriuk No. 4 on its Top 10 list of suspected former Nazis, after a new study alleged he was a key participant in a village massacre during World War II.

An academic article alleged that, in 1943, a man with his name lay in wait outside a barn that had been set ablaze, operating a stationary machine gun and firing on civilians as they tried to escape. The same article said the man took a watch, bracelet and gun from the body of a woman found nearby.

Katriuk spoke with The Canadian Press this week at his small farm in Ormstown, just under an hour’s drive from Montreal.

He has denied any involvement in war crimes in the past. This week he repeatedly refused to discuss anything about himself — other than his passion: the honey bees.

“I have nothing to say,” Katriuk said of the accusations, after putting down a beekeeper’s smoker and replacing a mesh veil for a floppy ball cap.

“When we talk about bees, that’s different. When we talk about my own affairs, that’s something else. I’m sorry.”