Two 41-year-old close friends had to break down in tears when being told they were switched at birth and spent their lives with each others biological family.
David Tait and Leon Swanson were swapped in the government-run Norway House Hospital in 1975 in the western Canadian province of Manitoba, DNA testing has confirmed.
‘I want answers so bad,’ Tait said, choking back tears at a press conference in Winnipeg on Friday.
He added that he felt ‘distraught, confused and angry.’
Swanson tried to hold back tears and said he did not know what to say.
Tait’s biological mother ended up raising Swanson instead, and Swanson’s birth mother raised Tait, CBC News reported.
In November, the Manitoba government said two other men who were close friends were also switched at birth in 1975, at the same Norway House Hospital. As they grew up, people noticed how they resembled each other’s family more than their own.
Eric Robinson, a former Manitoba cabinet minister who is helping the men in the latest case, said there were always suspicions in the community about their parentage.
The federal government owes these people,’ Robinson said.
‘What happened to them is criminal.
‘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.’
The former aboriginal affairs minister added he suspects there are more undiscovered cases.