Breastfeeding column causes uproar on Twitter
Columnist wrote she once attempted to nurse Michael Chong’s baby
Conservative leadership candidate Michael Chong is calling a Globe and Mail column that outlined the writer’s attempt to nurse one of his children — without his knowledge or consent, and while she wasn’t lactating — “odd,” but inconsequential. The column, written by Leah McLaren, was posted to the Globe’s website March 22, but it has since been removed. The Globe and Mail and McLaren did not respond to requests for comment.
“This incident happened over 10 years ago. It was odd, no doubt, but not of any real consequence,” Chong said in an emailed statement Monday. “I entered this race to discuss important challenges facing Canada. I am happy to discuss those. But I won’t be making any further comment on this.”
Archived versions of the column began circulating Sunday night on Twitter, drawing incredulous reaction on social media.
In the column, McLaren wrote that she was “about 25” at the time of the incident, which happened at a “Toronto house party.” She didn’t know Chong — but noted that he was al- ready the Conservative MP for Wellington-Halton Hills — nor whom the baby belonged to.
McLaren wrote that she went upstairs and walked into a bedroom “with coats piled high on the bed and noticed that in the corner, sitting wide awake in a little portable car seat, was the cutest baby I’d ever seen.”
After smiling at the baby, McLaren, who wrote she was feeling “a bit glum and distracted,” picked the baby up and sat down in a chair to cuddle him.
“Somehow, my pinky finger ended up in his mouth and I was astonished at the strength of his sucking reflex. ‘C’mon lady,’ said his eyes,” she wrote. “And I suddenly knew what he wanted. And I, of course, wanted to give him what he wanted. The only problem was, I had no milk. But would it be so bad, I wondered, if I just tried it out — just for a minute — just to see what it felt like?”
McLaren wrote that she began to unbutton her blouse, before Chong walked in and picked up his son, leaving with a “swift and polite goodbye.”
The column concluded with McLaren saying that since having her own children, she’s breastfed her friends’ babies and allowed hers to be fed by them, and that “it doesn’t actually feel odd at all.”
“In any case, this is all to say that breastfeeding is a lovely and marvellous thing, as is co-feeding and everyone should do it. Just don’t try it with a stranger’s baby in a bedroom at a party if you are 25 and stupid,” she wrote.
“Apologies to Mr. and Mrs. Chong.”
There appear to be several chronological inconsistencies in McLaren’s account. Based on McLaren’s age, the incident appears to have happened around 2000 or 2001. However, Chong wasn’t elected MP until 2004. As well, a Toronto Star profile on Chong in January 2015 lists his sons as ages 10, 7 and 5, suggesting the earliest his oldest child was born was in 2004.
Although strange, there probably aren’t any legal issues surrounding McLaren’s actions, said University of Toronto political science professor Courtney Jung. Jung is the author of the book Lactivism, which explores the politics, social pressure, business, history and marketing surrounding breastfeeding. It’s a different story ethically, though.
“I think it’s probably always unethical to give a baby anything, to have a baby ingest anything without the parents’ consent,” Jung said, noting that the baby can have a severe allergic reaction to someone else’s milk, or be allergic to milk altogether.
This is the second time this month Chong has been the focus of an unusual story outside his political career: On March16, a Canadian tourist in Guatemala tweeted a photo of the MP being used to advertise a topquality, “hygienic” experience in the public washrooms there.
It’s unclear how his photo ended up on the poster.