Manitoba premier set to apologize to two men switched at birth decades ago

By The Canadian Press on March 21, 2024.

Eddy Ambrose, a Manitoba man who was switched at birth, looks at photos of the parents who raised him, James and Katherine Ambrose, and his biological parents, Laurette and Camille Beauvais, at his home in Winnipeg, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. Ambrose and Richard Beauvais are to receive an apology from the Manitoba government. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

WINNIPEG – Two men who were switched at birth almost 70 years ago are to receive an apology today from the Manitoba government.

Premier Wab Kinew is slated to offer the apology in the legislature chamber.

Edward Ambrose and Richard Beauvais were born in a municipally run hospital in Arborg, Man., in 1955 and were sent home with each other’s parents.

The truth came to light decades later, after one of them took an at-home DNA ancestry test.

Manitoba, under the former Progressive Conservative government, had said it was not involved in the mix-up because the hospital was operated by the municipality in the days before universal medicare.

But the men’s lawyer, Bill Gange, says the hospital received most of its funding from the province.