For man switched at birth, path toward reclaiming lost Métis identity takes a step forward

A Winnipeg man who was switched at birth and grew up believing he was of Ukrainian heritage says he is one step closer to reclaiming his lost Métis identity.

Edward Ambrose obtained his Manitoba Métis Federation citizenship during a ceremony with MMF president David Chartrand last week.

"I couldn't hold it, I had to cry," Ambrose told CBC News. "Handing me the citizen card, I felt I was officially Métis."

Ambrose, 68, and Richard Beauvais learned in 2022 that they were sent home with the wrong families from a hospital in Arborg, Man., in 1955.

The revelation came as a result of Ambrose's sister taking a 23 and Me DNA test that suggested the pair weren't biological siblings — but she and Beauvais were.

Beauvais, who was raised in a Métis community near Lake Manitoba, is a residential day school survivor who was taken from his family during the Sixties Scoop. He was actually of Ukrainian, Jewish and Polish ancestry, and now lives in British Columbia.

Ambrose grew up on a farm in Rembrandt, Man., with a loving Ukrainian family, he said.

"The grief of what we went though, that will always be there — you'll never walk away from that — but for now I know who I am, and I know who my biological brothers and sisters are, so it's a step forward to a positive."

His biological sister Leona, together with Ambrose's daughter Eileen, were with him when he received his MMF citizenship card last week. Ambrose says Eileen is now in the process of applying for hers, too.

Chartrand said it was touching to be able to hand Ambrose his Métis citizenship card.

"He was so proud … to come home, proud to be who he is," said Chartrand.

"We're talking over six decades these two children were misplaced, so a lot of healing is going to have to take place, a lot of planning of holidays to fit two families in what they always thought they only had just one."

Ambrose said it was overwhelming to learn that he and Leona had lived nearby in Winnipeg for years without knowing it.

Now, she sometimes comes by to have coffee with him and his wife after they drop off their respective grandchildren at school in the mornings, he said. He never got to meet his biological parents before they died.