The Globe and Mail has suspended marquee columnist Leah McLaren for a week.

A source told the Star that McLaren, who wrote about her attempt to breastfeed Tory Leadership candidate Michael Chong’s baby without his knowledge and at a time when she was not lactating herself, has been forbidden to comment on her controversial column or on her suspension.

Calls and e-mails to the newspaper were not immediately returned Thursday. McLaren told the Star by email on Thursday that she could not comment.

The column was posted briefly to the Globe and Mail’s website on March 22, but was subsequently removed. The column was “accidentally” posted online by editors before it was finished, the source told the Star.

The column caught the attention of social media users on Sunday night, who shared archived versions.

On Monday, Chong tweeted that the “incident happened over 10 years ago. It was odd, no doubt, but not of any real consequence.” McLaren has not commented publicly on the circumstances surrounding the column and its publication, but has retweeted Chong’s comment.

Related: MP Michael Chong calls writer’s attempt to nurse his baby ‘odd’ but inconsequential

In the column, McLaren recounted an incident at a Toronto house party when she was “about 25” and happened upon a baby. She wrote that she was feeling down, and so picked the child up to give it a cuddle.

“Somehow, my pinky finger ended up in his mouth and I was astonished at the strength of his sucking reflex. ‘C’mon lady,’ said his eyes,” she wrote. “And I suddenly knew what he wanted. And I of course wanted to give him what he wanted. The only problem was, I had no milk. But would it be so bad, I wondered, if I just tried it out — just for a minute — just to see what it felt like?”

McLaren wrote that before anything happened, Chong walked into the room and picked up the child and said a “swift and polite goodbye.”