Two Canadians switched at birth receive a formal apology
A straightforward DNA testing kit received as a Christmas present had profound consequences for two Canadian men, altering the course of their lives forever.
Richard Beauvais, hailing from Sechelt, British Columbia, grew up believing he had indigenous heritage, only to discover through the test that he had a mixture of Ukrainian, Ashkenazi Jewish, and Polish roots.
Similarly, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Eddy Ambrose, raised in a Ukrainian family, found through his sister’s DNA test that he was not biologically related to her, but rather to Mr. Beauvais, who turned out to be his biological brother.
This revelation unearthed a remarkable twist of fate: both Richard Beauvais and Eddy Ambrose were born on the same day in 1955, at the same hospital in Arborg, Manitoba, but were accidentally switched at birth, each taken home by the other’s biological parents.
Nearly 70 years later, on Thursday, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew personally apologized to Mr. Beauvais and Mr. Ambrose for the anguish caused by the mix-up.
“I rise today to deliver an apology that has been overdue, for the harm inflicted upon two children, two sets of parents, and two families across multiple generations,” Mr. Kinew stated in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly.
Reflecting on the importance of empathy and compassion, the premier added, “We are often reminded to cultivate understanding and compassion by considering the experiences of others as if they were our own.”
“If that statement is true, our honored guests here today will perhaps understand compassion and empathy on a level very few of us will be able to approach.”
In their early years, the two had led starkly different lives, their lawyer Bill Gange told the BBC.
Mr Beauvais, 68, was raised Métis – an indigenous people in Canada of mixed indigenous and European ancestry.
His father died when he was three years old, leaving him responsible for his younger siblings while his mother struggled with the loss.
He attended a day school for indigenous children and was later forcibly taken from his family in the Sixties Scoop – an assimilationist policy in Canada where indigenous children were placed either in foster care or were adopted outside of their communities.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ambrose grew up on a farm in rural Manitoba, “with a very loving and very supportive Ukrainian ancestral family”, said Mr. Gagne, where he listened to Ukrainian folk songs before bed. However he, too, was later adopted after becoming an orphan at the age of 12.
Throughout his life, Mr Ambrose was never aware of his indigenous ancestry.
“They both have had who they thought they were stripped away because of this,” Mr Gange said.
For many years, Mr Beauvais was proud to run the only all-indigenous fishing boat off the coast of British Columbia.
“Now he realizes that everybody’s indigenous but him,” Mr Gange said. “There is an enormous adjustment to their life stories.”
In his apology, Mr Kinew shared that, remarkably, the two men’s lives slightly overlapped across the years.
As a child, Mr. Ambrose asked a girl from a few towns over to be on his baseball team at recess, Mr. Kinew said, “not knowing that she was his biological sister”.
When he was a teenager, Mr Beauvais’ love of fishing brought him to the same shore as his biological sister, who was casting her rod beside him – the two unaware of their relationship.
Despite the losses, Mr Gange said that both are very proud of who they have become and of the families that raised them. They have also gained a new family through the discovery.
Mr Ambrose has connected with his biological relatives and has become a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation.
Mr Beauvais, too, plans to connect with his biological family, and his two adult daughters have since tattooed “Ambrose” on their arms, to mark the last name their father would have had.
The two men have also sought legal representation through Mr Gange to ask the province of Manitoba for both an apology and financial compensation.
Mr. Gange said that initially, the province did not comment on their ordeal and claimed that the hospital where the mistake occurred was municipally run, and therefore not its responsibility.
But after a change in government that saw the election of Mr Kinew – Manitoba’s first indigenous premier since 1887 – the tone shifted.
The apology is a significant admission “that a mistake was made, that has affected all of them”, Mr. Gange said, referring to both Mr. Beauvais and Mr. Ambrose, as well as their families.
“[It is] the premier, on behalf of the province, saying out loud and to their faces, ‘this should not have happened to you,’ and I think that is an important acknowledgment.”
There has been no word, however, on whether the men will receive financial compensation, though Mr Gange said he will continue to push for it.
The Winnipeg-based lawyer has successfully sought out compensation for other Canadians switched at birth in the past, but in those cases, the individuals were born in federally-run hospitals.
Mr Beauvais and Mr Ambrose are the third known case of a birth mix-up in Manitoba. Two other cases have been reported in the Atlantic province of Newfoundland.
