THE TIMES THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012
Upfront
A3
Gender selection ad raises debate
Briefly
Mission RCMP seeks tips on missing teen
ROCHELLE BAKER RBaker@abbotsfordtimes.com
On an April night five years ago, Mission teenager Jeffrey Surtel left his home and hasn’t been seen since. On the anniversary of his disappearance, Mission RC M P h a s issued a plea to the public for any tips to help JEFF SURTEL locate Surtel. Surtel, who was 17 years old when he went missing, was last seen leaving his Mission home on April 29, 2007. He was wearing dark-coloured jeans, a navy colored T-shirt and a blue hooded sweater. The teen may have been riding a distinctive blue CCM mountain bike with yellow front forks. RCMP also issued an age-adapted photo that shows what Surtel may look like now. Surtel is Caucasian and was 6 feet, 1”, weighing 150 pounds, with medium length brown hair, brown eyes and glasses when he went missing. Contact the Mission RCMP at 604-826-7161 or Crimestoppers at 1-800222-8477.
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ebate in Abbotsford around gender preferences in children is surfacing after media reports about a U.S. fertility clinic that advertised the sex selection in a Indo-Canadian newspaper. An ad for the Washington Center for Reproductive Medicine appeared in the IndoCanadian 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. The prejudice is based on traditional notions that daughters, expected to be provided a dowery, are a drain on
“You don’t root these kinds of attitudes out overnight.” – Manpreet Grewal
family resources while a boy’s role is to care for his parents as they age, she said. “You don’t root these kind of attitudes out over night,” Grewal said. “Females were traditionally very powerless . . . but as
they become more educated, aware, and in charge of their own lives, they are seen as more of an asset.” While a preference for sons by Asian immigrants is a reality that needs examination, Grewal cautioned people about applying sweeping stereotypes to the entire community or believing the problem is on the rise. “The attitude is ongoing, and has caused pain somewhere, but it’s definitely shifting.” Community organizations and ethnic media outlets are doing lots of work around gender equality to get people to abandon their bias for boys, she said. The practise of pre-conception gender selection is illegal in Canada, except in the case of preventing a sex-linked disease or disorder. However, Grewal didn’t think a ban on advertising from clinics south of the border would be fruitful in combatting the problem.
A U.S. clinic sex selection ad was on an Indo-Canadian news site. “If they have consumers because it’s illegal [here], they’ll do it,” she said. “I think the attitudinal shift, education and awareness is the answer.
– WITH FILES FROM GEMMA KARSTENSSMITH, POSTMEDIA NEWS
Abbotsford’s Warm Zone is treading hot water Savings used to keep doors open ROCHELLE BAKER RBaker@abbotsfordtimes.com
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“And as more women gain gender equality, that’s the answer, too.”
bbotsford’s Warm Zone – the city’s only drop-in centre serving the community’s most vulnerable and marginalized women – is on borrowed money and time. A three-year pilot project formally funded by federal government through Status of Women Canada, the Warm Zone provides a safe space and services to women who are homeless, working the streets, battling illness, abuse, poverty, drug addiction or mental health issues or any combination of those problems. The centre has shower, laundry facilities, clothing and personal care items, Internet, a telephone, hot meals and access to counsellors, medical and legal services, HIV prevention and help for obtaining emergency and stable housing.
– TIMES FILE
Women spend time at the Warm Zone in Abbotsford resting, visiting, doing laundry and showering. The centre served more than 1,300 women last year. However, federal government funding for the drop centre dried up at the end of March, as did its lease. Co-ordinator Michele Giordano said the Women’s Resource Society
of the Fraser Valley, which runs the centre, is stretching its resources to keep the doors open temporarily while they scramble to find more funding.
“We’re basically pulling money out of our savings account until September, which buys us time to try and get a commitment from various agencies where we’re trying to get funding,” said Giordano. The federal government provided $93,000 a year since March 2009. The Warm Zone must also find a new and more permanent home as they only have a month-to-month agreement at its current location, across from Jubilee Park in downtown Abbotsford. Last year the centre served more than 1,300 women, with about 10 new women accessing services monthly. There were 644 visits from women in March alone, said Giordano. Dorothy Henneveld, WRSFV’s executive director, said it was clear from the start that money for the project would dry up at the end of the threeyear term but there are possible funding sources. “That’s the beauty and difficulty of pilot projects,” said Henneveld. see WOMEN, page A16
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