Born on the same day in the same hospital, two men's lives were changed from their first day on Earth. Now, the two men who discovered they were switched at birth from a DNA test finally received a formal apology from the government nearly 70 years after the shocking mistake. Richard Beauvais and Eddy Ambrose, 68, were born in 1955, but a major error in the hospital led to Beauvais and Ambrose being taken home by each other’s biological parents instead of their own. They spent their lives away from their biological families and the pair sat side-by-side on Thursday to hear in Manitoba 's Premier Wab Kinew make a formal apology for the years they lost. “I rise today to deliver an apology that has been a long time coming, for actions that harmed two children, two sets of parents and two families across many generations,” Kinew said in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly. “We are sometimes asked to understand empathy and compassion by considering what it is like to walk a mile in another person’s shoes.” READ MORE:
Gunman in
police uniform kills 16 people in Canada's worst mass
shooting The pair have shared the lives they could have had ( Image: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock) Beauvais grew up in Sechelt,
British Columbia believing he was an indigenous person for his entire life, but in 2020, he took a DNA test via an online genealogy platform that revealed he was actually a mix of Ukrainian, Ashkenazi Jewish, and Polish, according to the
BBC Meanwhile, Eddy Ambrose’s sister Evelyn Stocki took a DNA test in Winnipeg, Manitoba — nearly 1,500 miles away from Beauvais’ home, shockingly revealing that Beauvais was actually her biological brother. The Canadian pair had to get in touch. Ambrose and Beauvais first spoke on a phone call, according to the Globe and Mail. Edward Ambrose, left, wipes away a tear as he and Richard Beauvais, right, who were switched at birth in 1955, listen as Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew apologises in the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg ( Image: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock) “Is this Eddy Ambrose?” Beauvais started the call, according to the outlet. “I don’t think you remember me, but we met a very long time ago. It was 1955 and we were side by side on the bed.” Despite the government trying to make right the wrong that was only discovered “through a fluke,” the men’s lawyer, Bill Gange, told the BBC that the mix put them both on totally different trajectories in life. For all the latest news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the
USA, go to The Mirror US The pair got an official apology ( Image: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock) Tragedy had struck one family as Beauvais’ father, who is Ambrose’s biological father, died when he was three. Beauvais was then later taken from his family in
Canada ’s policy where indigenous children were placed in foster care or adopted away from their communities, known as the “Sixties Scoop.” “Richard told me I probably wouldn’t have survived — it was that brutal,” Ambrose told the
New York Times in August 2023. Their lives both were totally different. Taryn Beauvais daughter of Richard Beauvais, left, wipes tear as she speaks to media about her father and Edward Ambrose, right, in the Manitoba Legislature after the men received an apology ( Image: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock) Ambrose grew up happily on a rural farm in Manitoba, where he had a “very loving and very supportive Ukrainian ancestral family,” and was unaware of his indigenous heritage, but he was also later adopted at 12 after becoming an orphan. “They both have had who they thought they were stripped away because of this,” Gange explained The revelation that they were not who they thought they were for their whole lives has caused an “enormous adjustment” to the men’s lives. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, centre, apologises to Richard Beauvais, right, and Edward Ambrose, left ( Image: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock) Gange explained “that a mistake was made that has affected all of them,” but the formal apology is a step in the right direction. “[It is] the premier, on behalf of the province, saying out loud and to their faces, ‘this should not have happened to you,’ and I think that is an important acknowledgment,” he told the press.