Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack
Really? I'm not saying that you're incorrect but I'd be interested to see the statutory basis or precedent for this.
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http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/resources/a...rt-POLICY.html
Pregnancy and Breastfeeding
Under Section 10 (2) of the
Code, the “right to equal treatment without discrimination because of sex includes the right to equal treatment without discrimination because a woman is or may become pregnant.” Birth and breastfeeding are natural parts of child rearing and are integrally related to the ground of sex. Refusing or denying a service to a woman who is pregnant or is breastfeeding violates the
Code on the ground of sex.
In February 1999, the Commission settled a complaint related to an incident involving a woman who was breastfeeding her child in a restaurant and was asked by restaurant management to stop breastfeeding, to move to the restaurant’s washroom or to leave the restaurant. A key element of the settlement included a request by both the complainant and the respondents that the Commission develop an explicit policy regarding the rights of women to breastfeed in public, if they so choose. This includes the right not to be disturbed or denied access to services. Breastfeeding mothers have the same right to avail themselves of services, without discrimination, as all other people in Ontario.
As a result of the settlement, the Commission clarified and expanded its interpretation of the right of women to breastfeed and revised its
Policy on Pregnancy to reflect the protection of breastfeeding in public areas. The Commission also developed a plain language version of its
Policy on Pregnancy as well as a flyer entitled,
Your Rights as a Nursing Mother. Both were distributed to public health units and midwives’ associations across the province during National Breastfeeding Week in October 1999. The right to be accommodated at work is also part of the
Policy on Pregnancy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack
This seems like a rather selfish view, it expects other people to fit their lives around you. I've yet to see the schedule which involves going to a restaurant with your kid. If you need to breast feed then don't go, it's that simple. Most people here have no issue with it in most public places, but they realise that there is a common courtesy of not doing it in certain very formal places. If I were a woman, I wouldn't breast feed at dinner with the queen for example. Not to mention that "don't look" is easier said than done in a situation like that. It's an activity that draws the eye and often the sort of people who will decide to breast feed in that situation are the agressive "yeah look at me, so what?"
You have to make sacrifices when you have a kid and if that means not going to a restaurant for 6 months then so be it. You can't take your child clubbing and expect them to turn the music down for you, after all the baby needs sleep and the music might be waking it up, and shouldn't take a teething child to a cinema and you can't expect a restaurant to rearrange their clientele just for you because you're putting them off their food. There are just certain things you don't do if you have manners or etiquette and getting your breasts out in a top restaurant for whatever reason is one of them.
If you're not into using a bottle milk/formula, getting a babysitter, hiring a wetnurse, staying at home or going to a lower quality eating estalishment where that sort of thing would be allowed then tough.
I can only see a problem with breast feeding in rather exceptional circumstances but those circumstances do exist.
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Okay, come on... I'm talking about a reasonable thing, here. My husband and I go out for dinner and rent a movie once a month. It is literally the only form of a date or entertainment we have. Couples with babies have to do something nice together once in a while to reconnect or the relationship will start to fall apart.
We usually just go to a place like Wild Wing, Swiss Chalet, or a Fish and Chips Diner, because that is all we can afford. I'm not talking about fancy restaurants here. And when we go we take our daughter because we literally can't afford a sitter. If I were breastfeeding, why would I have to completely ruin my one date a month with my husband just because you find it a little off-putting. I'm not making anyone else "fit their lives around me". They can just keep doing what they would do anyways and not force me to lose out just because they are selfish.