A city councillor in White Rock. B.C. is apologizing for his sartorial suggestion that pregnant women not choose to wear form-fitting clothes that resemble “sausage casing.”
Councillor David Chesney has been facing a motherlode of criticism in recent days over an April 6 podcast interview on Talk Digital Network, in which he told host Jim Goddard that he doesn't like the way that many pregnant women dress.
Chesney said he's "not advocating that they wear tents," but he would rather that pregnant women not appear like sausages.
"I run into women all the time at the local grocery store and they can't get on any more skin-tight – it looks like sausage casing," he said.
"Their belly button is actually pushing through the material and I kind of look at that and I go ‘I get it: you’re pregnant, alright?' Now, why such a desire to push that out in front of everyone?”
Chesney conceded that others might not agree -- "I can hear some people screaming at me right now," he said – but he wondered why women wore yoga pants and bodysuits in public while pregnant.
"I don't find it repulsive, I just really have to question, why that? Why do you want to walk around like that?"
When Goddard said that he takes the attitude it doesn't matter what anyone chooses to wear, Chesney responded, "That's just my opinion and by golly, I'm entitled to it."
Goddard continued, wondering why women had to continue to work all the way through their pregnancies.
“Women want to come to work until that water breaks so that they can have one year off from the time the baby is born. They're not taking a month off ahead of time. They're coming to work, they're barely able to walk, they can't sit down… I don't know, it's a fine line,” he said.
On Friday, Chesney offered an apology in the online newspaper White Rock Sun that he edits and publishes.
"I apologize to any women that may have been offended by comments that were taken out of context," he wrote, after noting he's baffled that the interview is making headlines almost a month after it appeared online.
On Thursday, White Rock Mayor Wayne Baldwin told CTV News that Chesney’s opinions are his own.
"Councilor Chesney has characterized himself as a lone wolf and a voice of the people and I guess he feels that's what he's doing and he's voicing his personal opinions. But they are his opinions, not council's opinions," Baldwin said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Penny Daflos
