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Richard Beauvais, left, and Edward Ambrose in the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg in March, 2024, after receiving an apology from the provincial government for being switched at birth.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
Two men who were switched at birth in a rural Manitoba hospital 71 years ago have each been compensated $250,000 by the provincial government for the “miscarriage of justice,” that altered their identities and deprived them of knowing their biological parents.
Edward Ambrose and Richard Beauvais were awarded the payments by the Manitoba government in June, 2025, more than a year after Premier Wab Kinew apologized for the mistake and promised to work toward compensation, said their lawyer Bill Gange, who negotiated the settlement. The men wished to keep the compensation confidential, according to their lawyer, but the amounts were made public when financial disclosure documents were released by the province this week.
“What happened was a miscarriage of justice,” Manitoba Minister of Justice and Attorney General Matt Wiebe wrote in a statement. “No one can give them back the years that were lost but we hope the settlement brings some closure.”
The Globe and Mail published an exclusive story in 2023 about the switch that led the men to be estranged from their biological families and heritage for 68 years. In 1955, the men were sent home as newborn babies from a small hospital in Arborg, Man. – about 100 kilometres north of Winnipeg – with the wrong parents, all of whom are now deceased.
A hospital’s mistake left two men estranged from their heritages. Now they fight for answers
Mr. Ambrose was raised by Ukrainian parents in the rural farming town of Rembrandt, just south of Arborg. Mr. Beauvais was raised by his mother and grandparents, alongside six siblings in the Métis community of St. Laurent, southwest of Arborg, attending residential day school for Indigenous children and forcibly separated from his family during the Sixties Scoop. The mixup was discovered in 2022 by a relative who started asking questions after obtaining genealogy results through an at-home DNA test kit.
Initially the Manitoba Progressive Conservative government said the mistake was not their fault and disputed the hospital was even under their purview, but when the NDP came to power, Mr. Kinew took a different tack. In a heartfelt apology at the legislature in 2024, he apologized to Mr. Ambrose and Mr. Beauvais and their families and ordered his government to work toward a settlement to acknowledge the government’s failure to care and protect them.
Mr. Gange, who has also been an outspoken advocate for two other switched at birth instances in the province in the community of Norway House, said Mr. Ambrose and Mr. Beauvais were grateful for the apology and the resolution of financial compensation. Neither responded to requests for comment.
“What do you pay somebody for something like this? And that was something that I wrestled with long and hard with the provincial government because it took a very, very long time after the apology. … It was a lot of back and forth before I was finally able to get them to agree to the $250,000,” Mr. Gange said in an interview.
Premier Wab Kinew apologizes to two Manitoba men switched at birth in 1955
“The money is simply, in my view, an acknowledgment by the government of Manitoba that the government failed them. And so, whether it’s enough money or not enough money, doesn’t matter. It’s an acknowledgment of saying ‘You were affected by a mistake by our society and here’s something to acknowledge that.’”
The Manitoba government’s handling of the province’s failure is in contrast to Newfoundland and Labrador, where victims of two separate switched at birth cases that occurred in rural hospitals in the 1960s have been seeking apologies and acknowledgment of the mistakes from the government for years.
Craig Avery and Clarence Hynes were sent home with the wrong families at the Come by Chance Cottage hospital in 1962. Caroline Weir Greene and Arlene Lush, born at the Springdale Cottage hospital in 1969, also met the same fate. Their cases were also confirmed by DNA testing.
In 2022, then Progressive Conservative health critic Paul Dinn called on the then Liberal health and community services minister Tom Osborne to apologize and review what went wrong in both switched at birth cases in Newfoundland, saying it had been extremely tough on the families.
Manitoba men switched at birth to get official government apology
The Progressive Conservatives are now in power in Newfoundland and have not provided any apology or compensation.
Premier Tony Wakeham’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Instead, the province’s Department of Justice and Public Safety provided an unattributed statement saying the government of Newfoundland and Labrador is unable to provide any comment because it’s involved in litigation regarding the matter.
While Mr. Avery and Mr. Hynes have outstanding litigation with the provincial government dating back to 2019, the other victims do not.
“Neither one of us have a lawyer,” said Ms. Lush. Ms. Weir Greene also confirmed she doesn’t have a lawyer and is not involved in any litigation either.
“There’s no reason that they can’t say ‘Arlene, We’re sorry,’” Ms. Lush said. “We just want something to be acknowledged.”