A mother who was breastfeeding her baby at the Eaton Center on Saturday afternoon was asked to stop by a security guard, deeming the gesture “intimate and private”, reported the QMI agency.
While her sister was shopping, Isabelle Côté sat down on a bench to breastfeed her child. A security guard then quickly approached her, then asked her to go to a private breastfeeding room in the mall. The supervisor of the security guard, claimed by Ms. Côté, would have made the same statement.
“I am outraged by what happened,” the McGill University psychiatry resident told the QMI agency. I never would have thought it was still a problem in 2022.”
Back home, Ms. Côté contacted the mall’s customer service department. In a response published by the newspaper 24 hoursthe director of the Eaton Center, Melyssa Houle, affirmed that “this is an isolated case and that the Montreal Eaton Center encourages breastfeeding in all its common areas, as prescribed by the Charter of Rights and Quebec and Canadian freedoms”.
Ms. Houle also recalled that the mall has private breastfeeding rooms and indicated that “all administrative and support staff will be meeting shortly, in order to reiterate the policies in force regarding breastfeeding in common areas”.
Contacted by The dutythe Eaton Center replied that it would not comment “publicly on the management of this file”, it having “been taken care of by management”.
Isabelle Côté, who has a master’s degree in law, denounced Saturday evening the “unacceptable and unconstitutional” act of the Eaton Center on her Facebook page, recalling that “breastfeeding in public is a right”. The mother then received a wave of comments denouncing the “shameful” reaction of the mall.
The Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse du Québec, which takes the situation “very seriously”, also commented on the Facebook post, inviting Ms. Côté to file a complaint.
It’s now done. In an interview with the QMI agency, the complainant declared that she did not want money, but sought to “raise people’s awareness”.
A fundamental right
Considered a fundamental right, breastfeeding in public places is protected by the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, the Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse du Québec and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
According to the Éducaloi website, case law establishes that “since breastfeeding is something that only women can do, preventing a breastfeeding woman from having access to a public place is discrimination based on sex”.
Moreover, old court cases have made it possible to recall that “breastfeeding was not a gesture of exhibition, but rather a natural gesture intimately linked to a woman’s ability to give birth to a child”.
While the private breastfeeding rooms in the mall can accommodate women who prefer to isolate themselves, they should not, by law, prevent other mothers from breastfeeding where they wish.
“Out of solidarity and as a protest against this discriminatory policy and against the law”, several dozen mothers will come to the Eaton Center on Sunday, in order to “feed [leurs] children in public,” reads the Facebook event description.