A high profile member of B.C.'s opposition party was denied boarding at Vancouver's airport because her breast pump was deemed a security threat.
Vancouver-Mount Pleasant NDP MLA Jenny Kwan was trying to fly to Kamloops for a caucus meeting Tuesday morning, but security would not let her board when they found a breast milk pump and ice packs in her carry-on luggage.
Kwan says they found it suspicious she had the pump but not her four-month-old baby, Renan. Security officials suggested she check the milk into baggage, but the MLA did not have enough time.
Kwan did not have any carry on baggage for the 8:15 am flight because she was booked to return to Vancouver in the early evening.
Kwan didn't not tell security she's an MLA, but just a working mom. She added that she had brought her breast pumps on previous flights with no problems, but it was when she was accompanied by her child.
She told CTV News she will be following up with YVR security about the incident, as well as Air Canada.
"I could not understand how a breast pump with its ice packs are potentially a weapon of mass destruction," she said. "I said to the woman, 'come on, what do you think I'm going to do with this?'... and they said rules are rules."
A representative with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority could not be reached for comment.
Four months ago, a Portland woman was asked to dump out a litre of breast-milk that she was carrying in her carry-on baggage. She ended up checking it into her personal baggage instead.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Reshmi Nair.
