Angry over birth mix-up

Two men from a northern Manitoba First Nation say DNA evidence that they believe shows they were switched at birth has them confused, upset and angry.

"I want answers so bad," David Tait Jr. told a news conference Friday about what appears to be a second birth mix-up at the same federally run hospital during the mid-1970s.

"Forty years gone," he said after long pauses and barely able to speak through his tears.

Tait was born three days after Leon Swanson in the winter of 1975 at the Norway House Indian Hospital.

"I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say," is all Swanson could manage to get out as he wept.

Last November, two men from nearby Garden Hill First Nation discovered through DNA tests that they were switched at birth at the same hospital in the same year.

"I can't describe this matter as anything less than criminal," said Eric Robinson, Manitoba's former aboriginal affairs minister, who has been helping the families.

"We can live with one mistake, but two mistakes of a similar nature is not acceptable. We can't slough it off as being a mistake. It was a criminal act."

Robinson demanded the federal government launch an independent investigation into what happened and provide dedicated counselling for the families. He also wants Health Minister Jane Philpott to meet with the relatives of all four men to hear first-hand how they have been affected by the discovery.

"It's something (the government) can't sweep under the carpet. There are lingering questions out there," said Robinson, who was born at the same hospital.

"These two gentlemen are not the only victims. We have families who are deeply hurt by this. We have siblings ... that are hurt by this."

Philpott said the circumstances are appalling and Ottawa is taking steps to set up a third-party review.

"It's impossible to describe how tragic this situation is, obviously, for the two gentlemen in question, but (also) for their families, for the entire community," she said from Saguenay, Que., where she was attending a Liberal caucus meeting.

"We have reached out to the gentlemen to make sure that they have the appropriate mental-health resources ... to deal with this very unfortunate circumstance," she said.

"It's fundamentally important that we understand how this could have happened at the time."