Eddy Ambrose, right, and Richard Beauvais, left, meet in person for the first time, as their lawyer Bill Gange looks on, at the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg on March 19, 2024.Shannon VanRaes/The Globe and Mail
After nearly two years of being ignored by Manitoba government officials, two men who were switched at birth six decades ago will receive an apology from Premier Wab Kinew in the legislature on Thursday.
Eddy Ambrose of Winnipeg and Richard Beauvais of Sechelt, B.C., born on the same day at a small hospital north of the Manitoba capital in 1955, learned in 2022 that they had been raised in each other’s families. Family members began sleuthing out the mistake after they discovered perplexing results on a genealogical DNA kit and later confirmed the news with further medical DNA testing.
Mr. Ambrose was born Indigenous but raised by a family of Ukrainian descent, while Mr. Beauvais ended up in a Métis community despite his non-Indigenous heritage.
The men’s lawyer, Bill Gange, said the apology in the legislature is a significant step for both men and their families who have been asking for an official acknowledgment of the life-altering mistake since April, 2022.
“This is going to be a cathartic moment to help reset their lives,” said Mr. Gange in an interview. “It is very important for this mistake to be recognized and for those in charge to say: We’re sorry that this happened to you. It is devastating to a person’s sense of self.”
Last year, The Globe and Mail published an exclusive story about the tragic mistake and the men’s fight for answers from the province. At the time, Manitoba officials declined comment and denied responsibility for the mistake, while then Official Opposition critic for Indigenous affairs Ian Bushie called for an apology and an independent investigation.
In December, 2023, after questions about the case from The Globe to the newly formed NDP government, the Premier’s office confirmed an apology was forthcoming.
Mr. Ambrose was raised in the farming town of Rembrandt, north of Winnipeg, with parents of Ukrainian descent.
Mr. Beauvais grew up about 100 kilometres away in the Métis community of St. Laurent, where he faced hardships and intergenerational trauma handed down in a family affected by destructive government policies. As a child he foraged in a garbage dump to feed himself and his six younger siblings and was forcibly taken into government custody during the Sixties Scoop.
Last year, a government spokesman said the province wasn’t responsible because the hospital, known as the Arbor Medical Nursing Unit at the time, was municipally run. Mr. Gange has dismissed that argument as “shirking responsibility” because the hospital received provincial funding and the doctors and nurses were hired by the province.
Eddy Ambrose and Richard Beauvais at the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg on March 19, 2024.Shannon VanRaes/The Globe and Mail
The response last year from the then-Progressive Conservative government was in contrast to how Ottawa ultimately handled two separate switched-at-birth cases discovered in 2015 and 2016 at the federally run hospital in Norway House, Man. The Canadian government immediately apologized, launched an independent review, provided support for counselling and gave financial settlements to the victims and their families, said Mr. Gange, who also served as those victims’ lawyer.
Mr. Gange said he’s meeting with provincial officials this week to try to work out a settlement agreement that he hopes to be in the same spirit of resolution and responsibility.
The men’s story has raised complex and difficult questions about the harms that were caused. What reparations are owed to a man who wrongly lived an Indigenous identity because of a health care mistake? What is owed to someone whose Indigenous identity has been lost? While both sets of parents died several years ago, some of the men’s siblings have also been caused significant trauma by the revelation, added Mr. Gange.
“These men, to learn so late in life, they have suffered a loss – it just seems to me the right thing for the government, which is responsible ultimately for the welfare of the community it serves, to attempt to compensate,” he said.
Since The Globe’s initial story was published, Mr. Ambrose and his daughter have become members of the Manitoba Métis Federation and connected with many of his blood relatives.