Mother seeks apology after store objects to nursing

A Mississauga mom says she’s embarrassed and angry after a mall salesclerk phoned security on her for breastfeeding her infant son in public.

Dionne Williams was shopping at Urban Planet in the Dixie Outlet Mall on Friday afternoon with her sister, niece, and1-monthold son, Mekhi, when she stopped to feed her baby on a seat in the footwear section. Minutes later, she says, a sales clerk told her to stop or she would have to leave.

Williams says that when she pointed out that mothers have the right to breastfeed in public, the salesperson phoned mall security.

“It was just an embarrassing, horrible situation,” says the mother of five.

When mall security arrived, Williams says, the officer was apologetic and informed store staff that women cannot be asked to stop breastfeeding.

According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, “No one should prevent you from nursing your child simply because you are in a public area.

“They should not ask you to ‘cover up,’ disturb you, or ask you to move to another area that is more ‘discreet.’”

A spokesperson for Dixie Mall confirmed that breastfeeding “is absolutely 100 per cent allowed at the mall,” but added it can’t control what happens inside individual stores.

Urban Planet store manager Jim Michaels refused to comment.

YM Inc., the parent company of Urban Planet, said it was still investigating the incident but that the company welcomes nursing mothers.

“I can assure you that it is not our policy to not allow women to breastfeed within our stores. We cater to young women of different ages, so I don’t know what misunderstanding happened in that location,” said Jasna Brtan, vice president of human resources for YM Inc.

Brtan said that the company had never had an issue with this before in its hundreds of stores, and will retrain individual employees on its policies if necessary.

Williams says YM Inc. offered her a gift card, but she turned it down — she wants a written apology from the store where the incident happened.

Either way, she says, “I’m not going to go back.”