'A shattering experience' Apology at last for white and Indigenous men who were swapped at birth

For nearly seven decades, two Canadian men lived lives meant for the other. Richard Beauvais, 68, believed was Indigenous. Eddy Ambrose, who shares the same birthday, always understood that he was of Ukrainian descent.

- Leyland Cecco 

But that reality shattered four years ago when, after a series of DNA tests, they learned they had been mistakenly switched at birth.

Yesterday, Wab Kinew, the recently elected premier of Manitoba, was due to apologise to Beauvais and Ambrose in the province's legislature, reversing a decision by the previous government to deny responsibility for the mix-up.

The painful saga, which embodies the damaging effects of Canada's colonial policies, also highlights the fragile nature of identity and the complex meaning of family.

"To have the core understanding of who you are - and who your parents and siblings were - taken away from you is a shattering experience," said Bill Gange, the lawyer representing both men. "I don't think either man knows what it will fully mean for them down the line, but hopefully it will help."

Since the shocking revelation of their true identities, the two men have traced the fateful 1955 mix-up to the Arborg Medical Nursing Unit, then a newly opened rural hospital in southern Manitoba where staff gave families the wrong baby.

Ambrose, born to a Cree mother and French father, would spend his youth in the farming community of Rembrandt, oblivious to his Métis roots. The parents who raised him taught him Ukrainian folk songs.

They died when he was young and he was cared for by relatives until he was placed in foster care with a family he came to love immensely.

Nearly 60 miles away, Beauvais had an experience that reflected the pernicious nature of Canada's attempts to break Indigenous families and culture.