These two men were switched at birth – they find out 68 years later

One thought he was of native descent, the other believed he was of Ukrainian descent, but both were wrong. That is the fate of Richard Beauvias (68) and Eddy Ambrose, who were born on the same day. In 1955, the two men were victims of a fatal mix-up at a newly opened hospital in the Canadian prairie province of Manitoba. Workers had given the babies to the wrong family, English-language media unanimously reported.

Eddy Ambrose, son of a native mother and a French father, grew up in a farming community. His alleged parents taught him Ukrainian folk songs. He lost his parents at a young age. After several detours, he eventually ended up in a foster family with whom he felt very comfortable, reports ‘The Guardian’.

Richard Beauvais had a different experience. He grew up about 60 miles (about 100 kilometers) away. There he witnessed firsthand how the Canadian state tried to destroy indigenous families and their culture. First he learned French and the indigenous Cree language. But he was not allowed to say the latter at school. He lost his father at the age of three. His mother had difficulty raising him and his six siblings. Beauvais therefore had to look for food in the waste, reports ‘The Guardian’.

His experiences at ages eight and nine were even worse. Like many native children, he was not allowed to stay with his family. Instead, a foster family took care of him from then on. As “The Guardian” reports, officers entered the family home and took the children away. When Beauvais’ sister would not stop crying, she was beaten.

“I saw what the government was doing to indigenous children because they thought I was an indigenous child,” he told The Globe and Mail, which first reported the case.

A Christmas present would finally reveal the confusion. In 2020, Beauvais’ daughter gave him a DNA test. The reason: she wanted to know more about her father’s French origins. But the result was astonishing. The man has Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish roots. At first he didn’t want to admit it: “He thought it was a scam that didn’t even acknowledge his indigenous roots,” reports Bill Gange, lawyer for the two swapped men. He threw away the result.

But he was not the only one who got tested: Eddy Ambrose’s sister was also tested. She discovered that she is not related to her brother, the BBC reports. Thus the two finally found out their fate.

Lawyer Gange presented the case to the Manitoba Ministry of Health in April 2022. But they didn’t want to comment on it. “They were just completely silent,” he reports. After ‘The Globe and Mail’ reported on the two men in February 2023, the provincial government spoke out for the first time. She was aware of the matter but denied responsibility. Only when the left-wing New Democratic Party recently won the elections did the reversal occur: the government apologized.

“I rise today to apologize for actions that have harmed two children, two groups of parents and two families over many generations,” Provincial Premier Wab Kinew said in the Manitoba Legislature.

The realization of the fateful confusion brought not only negative things. The families of Eddy Ambrose and Richard Beauvais became closer. For example, Beauvais’ eldest daughter is now good friends with her father’s biological sister.

However, the discovery of the error remains a stroke of luck: the mix-up was “only discovered by chance,” says lawyer Gange. “This is just my own assessment, but I believe that as DNA testing becomes more widespread, more cases like this will arise,” the lawyer said.