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Allegations described here are not proven in court unless stated.
Manitoba has paid $250,000 each to Edward Ambrose and Richard Beauvais, two men who were switched at birth at a hospital in Arborg in 1955 and sent home with the wrong families.
The $500,000 total was paid in the 2025–26 fiscal year. For the men, the settlement follows a public apology from Premier Wab Kinew’s government in March 2024 and decades spent unaware of a mistake that reshaped their family ties and sense of identity.
A Decades-Long Discovery
The switch was uncovered after Ambrose’s sister took a DNA test. The results showed that she and Ambrose were not biologically related and indicated that Beauvais was her sibling.
The discovery connected two lives that had unfolded along very different paths.
Beauvais was raised believing he was of Cree and French descent and grew up near Lake Manitoba in a Métis community. He is also a residential school survivor who was removed from his home in the Sixties Scoop.
Ambrose was raised on a farm in Rembrandt by a Ukrainian family. After learning the truth, he reconnected with his Métis identity through the Manitoba Métis Federation.
“The grief of what we went through, that will always be there, you’ll never walk away from that,” Ambrose told CBC News in 2024. “But for now, I know who I am, and I know who my biological brothers and sisters are. So, it’s a step forward to a positive.”
Apology And Compensation Sought
Bill Gange, the lawyer representing both men, requested an apology and financial compensation from the province in April 2022.
The public apology arrived in March 2024. Now, the compensation claims have also been resolved.
“Mr. Ambrose and Mr. Beauvais are grateful to the provincial government for the public apology they received from Premier Kinew and for the resolution of their claims for financial compensation,” Gange told CBC News in a statement.
Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe described the case as “a miscarriage of justice.”
“No one can give them back the years that were lost but we hope the settlement brings some closure,” Wiebe said in a statement.
Reclaiming A Métis Identity
For Ambrose, the path after the DNA discovery included reconnecting with biological family and with Métis identity. Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand told CBC that Ambrose was emotional when welcomed back to his nation.
“He’s welcomed back to his nation, and he shed tears in that perspective,” Chartrand said. “And he’s so pleased to be home.”
Chartrand said the money was not Ambrose’s primary concern, while also questioning whether $250,000 could fully reflect what the men lost.
“That’s not a lot of money to be somebody else for [decades], and to have never seen your family, your mom and the rest of your family,” Chartrand said.
Closure Has Limits
The settlement provides a formal financial resolution, but it does not erase the impact of the switch or restore the years the men spent apart from their biological families.
Chartrand said the consequences will remain with both men as they seek time with the family they now know.
“It’s definitely a matter [that] clearly still will live with them forever,” he said.
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