Toronto Star, January 19, 2010
By: Susan Pigg, Reporter

A Newmarket pool owner has agreed to make a $2,000 donation to a women's shelter and post signs saying she will allow breastfeeding in and around the water after an altercation with a nursing mom that ended up in front of Ontario's Human Rights Tribunal.

Ellie Karkouti became the target of blogs, emails and protests after she asked Woodbridge mom Cinira Longuinho to leave the stairs of Newmarket's AquaCenter Swim School pool on Oct. 24, 2008. Longuinho was in the water and breastfeeding her 20-month-old daughter while chatting with friends.
When her supporters threatened a "peaceful nursing protest" two weeks later – right in the midst of York Region's "Anytime, Anywhere" breastfeeding campaign – Karkouti hired four security guards, not expecting them to show up wearing bulletproof vests.

Longuinho said she's happy with the terms of the Dec. 7 settlement, and insisted that they be made public (most mediated settlements are kept private) for the sake of other mothers who remain uncomfortable about nursing in public.

Karkouti also apologized "for any hurt felt" by Longuinho, who said the incident made her cautious to feed her daughter in public for some time, and agreed to lift a ban on Longuinho and her friends using the pool, although Longuinho says she now swims at a facility much closer to her home.
But Karkouti, owner of the private facility, blames the Ministry of Health for continuing to leave pool owners vulnerable. She said she's yet to get any response to at least eight requests over the last 15 months for clarification of provincial regulations prohibiting food and drink in or around pools.
"I'd like a decision ... so every pool owner in Ontario knows if breastfeeding is allowed or not," said Karkouti, herself a new mother. A ministry official couldn't confirm that the regulations are under review but added: "The ministry is always prepared to comply with the decision of a Human Rights Tribunal."

Karkouti was allowed to delay posting any signs for 90 days, to give the ministry time to comment on whether breast milk falls under the food and drink ban, but she isn't holding out much hope.
"They don't want to have anything to do with this," Karkouti said Friday. "I think everyone has hoped from the beginning that this would just go away."