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Canada  

Saving quints' birthplace

Cecile and Annette Dionne have just two items on their wish list as they get set to celebrate their 83rd birthday Sunday.

The surviving Dionne quintuplets would like various levels of government to ensure their soon-to-be-relocated birthplace in North Bay, Ont., has a consistent source of funding once it is moved.

The identical sisters were born on May 28, 1934, near the village of Corbeil, Ont., and were the first quintuplets to survive more than a few days.

The Ontario government took them from their parents and placed them in a special hospital where they spent the first nine years of their lives and served as a tourist attraction that poured roughly $500 million into provincial coffers.

Because of their own experience with exploitation, they're asking the government to do more for kids across Canada.

"In our case, there were huge gaps ... there was abuse," Annette told The Canadian Press in the interview at her home south of Montreal. "So for our birthday, we wish that Canada would take better care of their children."



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