The Globe and Mail has reportedly suspended its columnist Leah McLaren over a column in which she fessed up to trying to secretly breastfeed Conservative MP Michael Chong's infant son at a party while she was in her 20s.In the column, which was published March 22 and then silently unpublished by the Globe, McLaren said she was 25 when she wandered into a bedroom and found Chong's baby and then was inexplicably overcome with a desire to breastfeed him, despite the fact that she wasn't lactating at the time. She said Chong walked in and reclaimed his baby before she could go through with the act.An archived version of the piece made the rounds on Twitter Sunday night.The following day, Chong tweeted that this really went down."Incident happened over 10 years ago. It was no doubt odd, but of no real consequence. Let's focus on the important challenges facing Canada," he wrote.Read More: The Five Signs You've Written a Bad ColumnOther than retweeting him, McLaren hasn't spoken publicly about the incident, which has made international headlines. Neither has the Globe.But according to the Toronto Star, McLaren has been suspended.There's no doubt McLaren made herself out to be pretty creepy in this story (though it was nice to have a break from hearing about how she lives in London for half the year). But it does seem odd that a writer is taking the fall for an outlet that chose to publish a morally/legally questionable piece.Some editor presumably hit publish, no? Makes you think.The Globe has been criticized in the past for protecting its high-profile columnists. Margaret Wente has repeatedly been involved in plagiarism scandals (which the paper has apologized for) but has remained gainfully employed.Follow Manisha on Twitter.
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