Questions remain on switched babies

No charges will be laid over two incidents in 1975

NORWAY HOUSE, MAN. • The families of four men who were switched at birth and sent home with the wrong parents from a northern Manitoba hospital in 1975 said they were left with more questions than answers Thursday after reviews by the RCMP and Health Canada.

Manitoba RCMP said no charges will be laid in the two incidents at the Norway House Indian Hospital because there is no evidence that what happened was a criminal offence.

Health Canada said its review found that the mixup appears to have been accidental — the hospital did not seem to ensure identification bands were placed on newborn babies’ ankles at the time.

“The families are of the view that, due to the passage of time, they will never have a complete understanding of the events that led to the misidentification,” Bill Gange, lawyer for the families, wrote in a statement Thursday.

“The information gathered by the investigators has left the families filled with questions of what would their lives have been like if the Norway House hospital had followed standard procedures common in birthing centres in 1975.”

The switches only came to light in the last two years.

Luke Monias and Norman Barkman of Garden Hill First Nation, a fly-in community 400 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, revealed in November 2015 that DNA tests proved they were switched at birth.

Two other men from Norway House Cree Nation, Leon Swanson and David Tait Jr., came forward with the same story in August 2016.

Results from DNA tests confirmed their switch.

The two cases, which occurred months apart in 1975, raised the question of whether other babies could have ended up with the wrong families. Health Canada reports 239 babies were born at the hospital that year, but no other cases have come to light.

When the second case became public a year ago, former health minister Jane Philpott called the situation tragic and appalling and promised to get to the bottom of what happened.

The federal report said there was conflicting information about the exact process at the hospital in 1975, but it appears identification procedures were not followed in the two cases.

“The reviewers heard from multiple interviewees that the identity band was not routinely placed on the infant immediately after birth in the room where the infant had been born,” the report states.

At an emotional news conference a year ago, Tait Jr. said he was desperately searching for answers.

“Forty years gone,” he said, barely able to speak through his tears. “It’s pretty tough. It hit me like a ton of bricks. If anything, (I’m) angry, confused, upset. I’d like to get some answers on what’s going on.”

DNA evidence confirmed that Tait Jr., 41, is the son of Charlotte Mason — the woman who raised Swanson as her son — and not Frances Tait. They also confirmed that Swanson, Tait Jr.’s lifelong friend, is the biological son of Frances Tait.

Monias and Barkman were born on the same day and, growing up, the two were often told they looked more like the other boy’s family.

Manitoba’s former Aboriginal Affairs minister Eric Robinson, who acted as a liaison for the families, suggested the mix-up was an act of racism and neglect.

“You can pass it off once,” Robinson said last October. “And a second time ... kinda makes you wonder.”