Lifestyle

Two Men Living in the Same City Find out They Were Switched at Birth

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Tony Maples Photography

 

In a recent press release, Leon Swanson and David Tait Jr. wept from the emotionally difficult news that they were switched at birth. In 1975, the two baby boys left the Norway House Indian Hospital with the wrong parents. At the time, the hospital was run by the federal government.

The men knew each other and grew up and lived in the same area as the hospital. CBC News quoted Tait as saying, “We don’t have words. Forty years gone … just distraught, confused angry.”

This is the second confirmed case of babies being switched at birth at the Norway House Indian Hospital in 1975. Five months before Swanson and Tait were born, Luke Monias and Norman Barkman left the hospital with their non-biological parents as well.

At the press event, Eric Robinson, former NDP member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly for Keewatinook, said “I can’t describe this matter as anything less than criminal. We can live with one mistake, but two mistakes of a similar nature is not acceptable, so we can’t simply slough it off as being a mistake, indeed it was a criminal activity in my view.”

The hospital will undergo an investigation by a third-party, and the findings will be made public.