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6- The Oakville Beaver, Friday September 14, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager Ask the candidates At The Oakville Beaver, we believe it is our obligation to provide the town's electorate with as much information about local candidates as possible before the Wednesday, Oct. 10 provincial election. Over the next three-and-ahalf weeks, the Beaver plans to provide coverage on each of the candidates and stories from every all-candidates meeting/debate that takes place in and around our town during the campaign. We have also decided to do something a little different this time around. In past federal, provincial and municipal elections, we have asked candidates to respond to questions posed to them by the editor. This election, we would like to hear your questions. Simply e-mail us a single question related to any provincial issue that is most important to you heading into Oct. 10. Beaver staff will then pick one question from the e-mails and pose it to each of the candidates representing the ridings of Oakville and Halton. In order to be eligible for this feature, e-mailed questions must include the author's full name, full residential address and a daytime number where they can be reached for verification purposes. E-mails should also include Ask the Candidate on their subject line and may be forwarded to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. Our goal is to deliver answers to the questions that weigh most heavily on your mind heading into this provincial election. The rest is up to you. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Reader objects to picture of formula bottles for triplets Re: 30 Bottles of formula on the cover of Sept. 8 Weekend edition of The Oakville Beaver. This story was about triplets, not formula, thus, why were the babies not on the front page of the paper? Printing a picture containing multiple bottles of formula on the front of your paper endorses formula feeding and use of a particular brand of bottle (as the product label was shown). This couple may have chosen to bottle feed their infants formula, but that should not be what is shown as the front page photo in your paper. There are a lot more aspects of parenting triplets than providing artificial baby-milk (formula). Nowhere in the article were the risks of formula mentioned or that breastfeeding is also a viable option. Breastfeeding triplets is a viable option. Oakville's Tracey Kitch, Director of Obstetrics/Gynecology Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, and mother of spontaneous triplets, exclusively breastfed her three babies. The Beaver quotes on the front page, "Using communication to build better communities". Infant formulas do not build better communities. Infant formula leads to increased risk of: asthma, allergy, reduced cognitive development, acute respiratory disease, infection from contaminated formula, childhood cancers, chronic diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, gastrointestinal infections, mortality, otitis media and ear infections, and side effects of environmental contaminants. Endorsing artificial babymilk thus may expose more Oakville's infants to these risks. Is that "building a better community"? Do the reporters at The Beaver realize that in 1981 the World Health Organization (WHO) stated, "Efforts to promote breastfeeding and to overcome problems that might discourage it are a part of the overall nutrition and maternal and child health programs of both organizations and are a key element of primary health care as a means of achieving health for all by the year 2000." By publishing such a photo, you are violating the WHO mission statement. Additionally, WHO (1981) states, "A variety of factors influence the prevalence and duration of breast-feeding. The 27th World Health Assembly, in 1974, noted the general decline in breast-feeding in many parts of the world, related to sociocultural and other factors including Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com See Photo page 16 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981.Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, wil not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.