Close friends learn they were switched at birth

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This article was published 13/11/2015 (3615 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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For years, Norman Barkman called his old friend Luke Monias his twin brother, a nod to their shared birthday and to rumours that dogged the two growing up in Garden Hill First Nation.

Barkman, angular and slight, looked strikingly like Monias’s dad; and Monias looked a lot like Barkman’s family. All that sparked gossip and jokes the pair heard all their lives.

On Tuesday, at a clinic in Winnipeg, a DNA test helped them finally learn the truth.

“The doctor took me to the room alone, and I was kind of sick at that time because I’m diabetic and she told me, ‘Do you want to know?’ ” Barkman said quietly.

The test proved Monias, not Barkman, is the biological son of Rebecca and Daniel Barkman.

It is nearly certain Barkman’s birth parents are the people who raised Monias as their own, Rosamund and Isaiah Monias.

The two men, both born June 19, 1975, at the regional maternity ward in the Norway House hospital, were switched at birth.

“My heart fell,” Monias said of the moment he got the DNA results. “That’s when it hit me the hardest. All those years… ”

The pair then got on a plane back to Garden Hill First Nation, where they broke the news to Rebecca Barkman.

“She said, ‘You guys go and you come to my home and tell me yourself,’ ” said Monias, whose forearm bears a large tattoo of his last name. “I told her from the beginning, ‘Don’t you want to know the truth?’ Daniel passed away and also my mom passed away, and they didn’t know the truth about this.”

Monias said his birth mother has no idea how the mistake was made, and had mixed feelings about the news. “Crying, sad,” he said. “She was happy, too.”

The pair want Garden Hill to know the truth, and they also want to know how the switch was made 40 years ago.

On Friday, Barkman, Monias and Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Minister Eric Robinson called on the federal government (Health Canada in particular) to launch an investigation. Robinson said the mix-up has resulted in a sense of stolen identity for the two men.

“This horrible and irresponsible mix-up at the hospital has cause serious and long-term damage to both these men and their families,” said Robinson, whose office helped co-ordinate the DNA test. “The lives of Luke, Norman and the families have been irreversibly torn apart by this error.”

New federal Health Minister Jane Philpott was not made available for an interview, but said in a statement she was “very concerned to learn of this issue.”

“I have asked my department officials to look into the matter immediately and to reach out to the families involved,” she said. “I can assure Canadians that Health Canada will look into the concerns that have been raised by Mr. Barkman and Mr. Monias.”

Robinson said he’s worried more northern children were switched at birth, and said the case could open another “can of worms” in Canada’s careless treatment of indigenous people.

“It could,” agreed Garden Hill First Nation Chief Arnold Flett. “But it’s hard to say what the outcome is going to be on this one.”

‘I just want to know what happened’

Flett said the news will be shocking for many in the remote east side community on Island Lake, where word is just filtering out. Many even in Barkman and Monias’s families still haven’t heard the news. “It’s actually true when the rumours were saying,” said Flett.

Robinson said he spoke to new Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett earlier in the week and “she assured me she would be co-operative with any activity that may occur.”

Both men grew up in big families — Barkman had three sisters and a brother, and Monias had seven siblings. In July, fed up with the lingering questions, Monias approached Robinson’s office for help finding out the truth.

With a family member snapping a few photos, Barkman and Monias met in Rebecca’s living room in Garden Hill, along with Isaiah Monias, to grapple with the news.

“My dad said, ‘Nothing’s going to change,’ ” said Monias.

Monias said he is not sure yet what would right the wrong, though an apology would be a start.

“I want to know my family,” he added. “That’s the next step.”

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca