This appeared in the Saturday, Jan 27 2001 edition of the Toronto Star. Michele Landsberg is a well known Canadian journalist, a feminist, and a stalwart protector of Women and Childrens rights. She has an impeccable reputation and is best known for her scathing attacks on Ontarios' Conservative Provincial Government. She is very widely read, and her column appears on Page 1 of the "Life" section. This was what she wrote on Sat. "Breast-feeding a human right for mom, baby IT'S GREAT to hear praise and promises on all sides for ``early childhood development'' - even if Quebec is still the only province that comes close to fulfilling that promise. Now how about some drum rolls and trumpet fanfares for ``earliest childhood development''? Extraordinarily, the most basic enhancement of life available to infants - breast-feeding - is still not seen as a human right. The struggle to breast-feed at work or in public places is still a lonely one, waged mostly by mothers on their own and their babies' behalf, sometimes with the help of forward-looking unions. Breast-feeding a baby is free, environmentally friendly, easier by far than bottle-feeding, and leads to so many physical and emotional benefits for baby, mother and community that you'd think the practice would be universal. Among the recent findings in long-term studies around the world: Babies fed on breast-milk have dramatically sharper vision, stronger immune systems, fewer ear infections, higher IQ and reduced likelihood of asthma, diabetes and Crohn's disease, to name just a few physiological rewards. The emotional benefits are incalculable. The tender intimacy between mother and baby is so intense and joyful, when all goes well, that words simply can't convey the depth of the bonding. You'd think any nation would do everything in its power to enable and encourage such a high-octane start to life for its future citizens. Canada, however, has been lackadaisical at best and the provinces are total slouches. Thank heaven, then, for stalwart women like Doris DeGagne, a part- time recreational therapist at a continuing care centre called Care-west Cross Bow in Calgary. Alberta, the mingiest province around, guarantees only four and a half months maternity leave for its workers.Carewest, however, allowed a nine-month leave when DeGagne had her first baby. Determined to breast-feed, DeGagne ran into a few medical setbacks in the first few months. By the time she was due back at work in March '99, however, she had established a regime of total breast-feeding every three hours. (Baby Dana refused bottles and was temporarily off all solid foods.) It's worth noting that the American Pediatric Association recommends breast-feeding for a full year and the World Health Organization suggests two years. When DeGagne tried to extend her unpaid leave by six months, so she could keep on breast-feeding, Carewest refused - even though another employee was prepared to continue working full-time to cover DeGagne's absence. At best, Carewest offered to let DeGagne use her regularly scheduled breaks to pump and store breast milk. (No wonder, with bosses like this, that three-quarters of Canada's new mothers begin breast-feeding their infants and more than two-thirds have given up by six months.) DeGagne refused to return to work and was fired. With the help of her union, the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, DeGagne grieved. Her union rep argued before an arbitrator that this was an issue of gender discrimination. The arbitrator, John Moreau, agreed, ruling that ``breast-feeding is a choice only a woman can make at birth but, once made, benefits the woman, her child and society as a whole.'' To prevent her from making that baby-friendly choice would be discrimination, he ruled. Moreau relied partly on the 1997 British Columbia case of Michelle Poirier. She was denied permission to breast-feed her infant at a lunch- hour seminar ordered by her boss, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, for International Women's Day. (Savour the irony.) It took her six years to win a decision from the B.C. Supreme Court that this was a case of discrimination based on gender. Bit by bit, piece by piece, Canadian mothers are building an unassailable case for breast-feeding as a human right. DeGagne's union has gone further in its advocacy. It recently made arguments to the Alberta legislative committee looking (somewhat languidly) into parental leave provisions. The union wants Alberta to grant 18 months of unpaid leave or at the very least to bring itself into line with the new federal employment insurance provisions of a year's maternity leave with benefits. ``The raising of children,'' wrote the union, ``while first . . . the responsibility of parents, is also a responsibility of our society at large. In order for our society to thrive . . . all of us must contribute to the rearing of future generations.'' In these greedy-guts, destructively selfish, tax-rebate-grabbing times, it's almost deliriously refreshing to hear anyone speaking so sanely about simple human realities. We should go all out to ensure that the benefits of breast-feeding are universally encouraged, supported and safeguarded. Instead, depressingly, our governments, institutions and employers seem carelessly inimical to one of the primary acts of human love and care." 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