Babies swapped, ‘lives were stolen’

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This article was published 25/08/2016 (2797 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Frances Tait left the Norway House Indian Hospital in February 1975 with the baby boy hospital staff handed to her.

It just wasn’t the baby boy that she gave birth to that winter.

At a news conference Friday at the Norway House Cree Nation’s Winnipeg office, officials said DNA testing proves the boy she raised — David Tait, Jr. — is the biological son of Charlotte Mason, another Norway House mom who gave birth in the same hospital during the same time frame.

Another DNA test is expected to prove the baby boy Charlotte raised — Leon Swanson — is the biological son of Frances and her husband David Tait, Sr.

Frances said she only saw her baby briefly after she gave birth.

“She remembers the early (time), when she gave birth to her son. She never saw her son until the day she was released from the hospital,” band councillor Darlene Osborne said, interpreting for Frances, who spoke Cree in a strong voice.

The two families appeared together at the news conference and talked about the bullying the two sons endured, as people teased them about resemblances to each other’s families. The two men were friends as children and still live in Norway House.

“It’s pretty tough, it hits you like a ton of bricks. (I’m) angry, confused, upset. I’d like to get some answers so I know what’s going on,” David Tait, Jr. said.

“We heard rumours for years. I’m going to have to go back home to the same thing. It might even get worse. It’s going to affect us one way or the other, I know that. It’s going to be a long journey.”

Swanson had difficulty putting words to how it makes him feel.

“My mind is blank,” Swanson said. “He (David, Jr.) was my best friend. I used to sleep at his house. I felt that bond.”

Leon Swanson was born Jan. 31, 1975. David Tait Jr. was born Feb. 3, 1975.

Eric Robinson, the former provincial aboriginal affairs minister, has been assisting the families in their quest for the truth about what happened at federally operated Norway House Indian Hospital 41 years ago.

“Because of complications relating to the (child birth), the mother (Charlotte Mason) had to be medevaced to Winnipeg and upon her return, she was given this child as her child. And the other child went home with the Tait family,” Robinson said.

The news came less than a year after DNA tests proved childhood friends Norman Barkman and Luke Monias, 41, both of Garden Hill First Nation, were switched at birth after being born at the same hospital June 19, 1975.

Robinson said babies being switched a second time is “criminal” and said he is renewing his call from last November to Health Minister Jane Philpott for a federal external investigation that will be “honest and thorough.”

“I’m not one to analyze telephone conversations but it appeared to me that she wasn’t taking our word seriously or that of Mr. Barkman and Mr. Monias,” Robinson said. “Lives were stolen.

“An external investigation is the most appropriate course to take at this time because both these gentlemen want some answers and those answers should be made available to them.”

Philpott had told the Free Press in a statement in 2015 that she was “very concerned to learn of this issue” and that she asked her department officials to look into the matter immediately.

Robinson said nothing has been done.

“I think she should… come to Manitoba and talk with people from Garden Hill and relatives from Norway House and hear first-hand how this has impacted their families,” Robinson said. “I think that would be the decent, human thing to do.”

Asked if there could be more babies who were switched at birth at that hospital, Robinson paused.

“Let me just say this. There’s some lingering questions out there.”

Their families are coping as best they can, Robinson said, but are in turmoil because their lives have been torn apart and they need to receive counselling.

“Other cases may come forward,” he said. “Twice in the same year in the same hospital with indigenous kids? It makes you question.”

Both families know each other well in the community of 8,000 located about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

“We agreed we are going to be one family. We have an extra son and Charlotte has an extra son,” David Tait Sr. said.

“They’ll always be my mom and dad, regardless. They raised me from Day One and that’s the way it’s going to stay,” David Tait Jr. said, indicating David Sr. and Frances beside him. “Plus, I get another brother, another mom and dad.”

Osborne, interpreting for Frances Tait, said the families hope learning the truth puts an end to all the speculation in the community over the years.

“She said all that matters to them is to continue treating them as their own sons,” Osborne said.

Then Frances laughed a bit and spoke again.

“She said one of her sons by the name of Edward really looks like Leon. She’s very happy.”

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca