In Quebec, mothers have the right to breastfeed their babies in public, said Tuesday the Minister for the Status of Women, Isabelle Charest.
• Read also: A young mother is banned from breastfeeding at the Eaton Center
- You can also listen to Raphaëlle Petitjean in an interview on Geneviève Pettersen’s show broadcast live every day at 1 p.m. via OLD radio:
While breastfeeding her 4-month-old baby on a bench at the Eaton Center, a young mother was arrested by security guards on Saturday followingnoon, claiming it was an “intimate and private gesture “. “Outraged”, Isabelle Côté denounced the situation to the customer service of the establishment and initiated a complaint process with the Commission for Human Rights and Youth Rights.
What happened at the Eaton Center is simply “unacceptable”, in the eyes of Minister Charest.
“Breastfeeding your child in public is a right and no one should question it in 2022,” she said in a written statement sent to our Parliamentary Office.
In 2005, the Human Rights Tribunal ruled that a furniture store violated a woman’s right to equal treatment regardless of gender by excluding her from a public place because that she was breastfeeding her toddler.
Two years earlier, the Court had come to the same conclusion with regard to the City of Montreal, which had excluded a mother from a municipal court room because she was breastfeeding her son.
- Also listen to Geneviève Pettersen’s editorial with Benoit Dutrizac broadcast live every day at 11:30 a.m. via OLD radio:
