Baby In The House

NDP MP Sana Hassainia pose for a photograph with her three month old baby Skander-Jack Kochlef on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday. Hassainia said she was asked to to remove her baby from the House of Commons before a vote. Photograph by: Dave Chan, Postmedia News

A baby in the house is a thing of joy. A baby in the House of Commons is a pretty sight, but it also represents disruption in a place where all those elected to Parliament are charged with an obligation to be good stewards of the country's fortunes. Which calls for attention to the matters at hand. And they are, by their very nature, grave and important. Which does not preclude Members of Parliament from other matters that can be disposed of when duty calls.

A child cannot be readily disposed of when duty calls. A child requires full attention at all times. And so does the duty that all Members of Parliament were elected to discharge on behalf of those whom they represent, both their electors and the population at large. Babies and Parliament in intimate proximity are not a good fit. Women of child-bearing age who run for public office and are successfully voted into office should understand that.

NDP MP Sana Hassainia, who gave birth to a little boy several months ago evidently arranged with her husband to be present when she finished nursing him, so she could hand their little bundle of joy over to his care, while she took steps to discharge her duty in the House of Commons. Her husband was nowhere to be found on this occasion, therefore, Ms. Hassainia brought her baby to the floor of the House of Commons.

A key vote was to take place there at that time. The presence of the baby, while imparting joy to all present, was also the source of a distraction to the business at hand. Speaker Andrew Scheer, whose attention was drawn to the situation directed a Parliamentary page to inform Ms. Hassainia, as well as other members who were snapping photos of the baby, to return to their seats in preparation for the pending vote.

MP Hassainia was invited to leave the floor with the baby. The page informed the motherly MP that "...the Speaker asked you to leave, it is prohibited". "We are a caucus that is mostly young and we have around 40 women, so the situation will certainly come again", MP Hassainia informed reporters later that day.

And government House leader Peter Van Loan gave his opinion that it would be "appropriate" for the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs of the House of Commons to look into the issue of accommodating new mothers in Parliament. Let us, therefore, hope and anticipate that any such discussion represents clear thinking on the matter. Giving short shrift of the underlying issue that will be made of special entitlements due to women and babies.

We do not see babies in most workplaces. Granted, there are some places where accommodation is made for the presence of infants, when a company or a school situates a day-care or a staffed nursery on their premises for the convenience of their staff. But this is an unusual situation, not normally seen. Nonetheless, should MPs feel strongly on the issue, they could do likewise, with the costs associated with such a facility being picked up by the MPs.

Failing that, surely the annual salary of $140,000 should enable any Member of Parliament to afford to hire a nanny who might accompany them in their duties to present the child when it is feeding time and remove the child when that has been accomplished. My dentist, as a responsible professional, does not bring her baby to her dental premises.

Nor does my personal physician bring her infant, her second child, to the office with her, just as her first child was never brought along to complicate the issue of tending to her professional work in looking after her patients. So, despite some ambiguity over whether female MPs of childbearing age should be permitted special consideration in this matter, it should indeed be resolved.

Raising a child is a private, family matter. Accommodations for the care and nurturing of the child, if it complicates the mother's choice to be a politician, a lawyer, a dentist, a doctor, a school secretary, is still the responsibility of the parent or parents. It is the parents, and perhaps their extended family that should seek solutions.

Those solutions do not lie with the public purse, nor with interfering in the affairs of the state.

And there the matter should rest.