67-year-old B.C. man learns he was switched at birth and isn't actually Indigenous

Richard Beauvais has always believed he had Indigenous and French roots, and considered himself Metis. So when the 67-year-old Sechelt man did a 23andMe at-home DNA test that showed he had Ukrainian and Jewish heritage, he originally brushed it off.

But then he was contacted by the family of a Winnipeg man who had also done an at-home DNA test, and learned he was related to them. Beyond that, the Ambrose family had done further testing that revealed a long-ago mistake at a small Manitoba hospital.

On June 28, 1955, Beauvais was switched at birth with Eddy Ambrose, another baby boy born on the same day at Arborg Hospital.

“The hardest time in my life, I think, is when I had to phone my two sisters … and tell them that I was not really their brother,” said Beauvais.

“How do you have the wrong baby and give it to the parent? What happened at that time?” Ambrose asked. “It’s something I will never be able to explain. Obviously, it was a big, careless mistake.”

The two men are now trying to get answers about how that mistake could have happened. Their lawyer, Bill Gange, said he has requested Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon meet with the two men "to find a way to respond to the harm suffered."

Ambrose said learning he was not related to his siblings was very painful.

“It took a lot out of me. I lost a whole chunk out of me basically. It felt like someone ripped your heart out,” he said.

Ambrose had always believed he was Ukrainian.

“Now, if I talk to him today, he’s not Ukrainian at all, he’s native and he’s proud of it. And he wants to join his culture,” said Beauvais.

Ambrose has applied to be a citizen of the Manitoba Metis Federation and is embracing his newfound family.

“I have met already some of my sisters and brothers,” he said. “I need to get my identity back. I need to prove who I am.”

For Beauvais, learning he isn’t Metis by birth has been difficult.

“I felt as if something was taken away from me,” he said. “I guess I fought for the right to be native. Whenever anyone teased me about it, I would fight them when I was a kid, and I was kind of proud to say I was native. And you don’t understand it until it’s taken away from you suddenly.”

While Beauvais may not have Indigenous blood, Ambrose said to him, he’s family.

“I call him my brother," Ambrose said. "Even though we are not brothers, we are brothers in a way.”

With files from The Canadian Press