NORWAY HOUSE, Manitoba (AP) — Canada's national police force said Friday that it is has started an investigation into two cases of babies who were allegedly switched at birth at a northern Manitoba hospital 41 years ago. 
 
 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it has an obligation to the families and the public to determine if the mix-ups were accidental or criminal. 
 
 Two men from Garden Hill First Nation first announced last year that DNA tests had proved they were switched at birth at the Norway House Indian Hospital in 1975. 
 
 Two other men from Norway House, born at the same hospital in the same year, came forward with the same story in August. DNA tests confirmed their story last month. 
 
 Tests show Leon Swanson is the biological son of the woman who raised David Tait Jr., while Tait is the son of the woman who raised Swanson. 
 
 Tests last November showed Luke Monias and Norman Barkman of nearby Garden Hill also went home from the hospital with the other's family in 1975. 
 
 The two cases have raised the question of whether other babies could have been switched at the hospital. 
 
 Health Canada has said it would offer free DNA tests to anyone born at the hospital before 1980, after which the facility started fitting newborns with identification bands. 
 
 The police force said in a statement that its investigation will be separate from a review that Canada's federal government announced earlier. ||||| The RCMP have launched an investigation into two separate cases of babies being switched at birth at the Norway House Indian Hospital in northern Manitoba 41 years ago. 
 
 The police force announced the investigation on Friday into the two cases, which happened at the federally run hospital in 1975. 
 
 "The RCMP has an obligation to the families involved and to the public to determine if the incidents at the Norway House Indian Hospital were accidental or criminal in nature," the police force said in a statement. 
 
 Norman Barkman and Luke Monias learned last year that they had been raised by each other's parents, while Leon Swanson and David Tait Jr. made the same discovery this year. 
 
 Swanson (left) sits next to former Keewatinook NDP member of the legislature Eric Robinson and David Tait Jr. (right) at a news conference in Winnipeg on Aug. 26. (Cam MacIntosh/CBC) 
 
 Swanson and Tait were born three days apart — Swanson on Jan. 31, 1975, and Tait on Feb. 3, 1975 — at the Norway House Indian Hospital. 
 
 Both men know each other and were raised and continue to live in Norway House, a remote community about 460 kilometres north of Winnipeg. 
 
 Monias and Barkman were born at the same hospital on June 19, 1975, and grew up as friends in the Garden Hill First Nation, also in northern Manitoba. 
 
 DNA tests confirmed that in both cases the men had been switched at birth. 
 
 Health Canada is conducting a separate investigation into the cases. 
 
 After Swanson and Tait came forward in August, the federal department said it would offer free DNA tests to others who suspect they may have been switched at birth at the Norway House Indian Hospital. 
 
 Barkman, Monias, Swanson and Tait will meet face to face with federal Health Minister Jane Philpott to request funding for counselling and other support services. ||||| Manitoba's former aboriginal affairs minister Eric Robinson, centre, with Norway House residents Leon Swanson, left, and David Tait Jr. announces at a press conference in Winnipeg on Friday, August 26, 2016 that the two men were switched at birth in 1975 when their mothers gave birth at Norway House Indian Hospital. The RCMP says it is has started an investigation into two cases of babies who were switched at birth at a northern Manitoba hospital 41 years ago. The force says it has an obligation to the families and the public to see if the mix-ups were accidental or criminal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods 
 
 NORWAY HOUSE, Man. - The RCMP is investigating two cases of babies who were switched at birth at a northern Manitoba hospital more than 40 years ago. 
 
 The two cases involve four men, who went home with different parents from the Norway House hospital in 1975. They went public with the mix-ups in the past year after getting DNA tests. 
 
 The RCMP say its investigation will be separate from a review the federal government announced in August. 
 
 "The RCMP has an obligation to the families involved and to the public to determine if the incidents at the Norway House Indian Hospital were accidental or criminal in nature," Mounties said in a news release Friday. 
 
 RCMP spokesman Robert Cyrenne added that the force began the investigation on its own and the probe is still in its early stages. 
 
 "It's really basically to determine if there was any criminal intent for these babies being switched at birth," he said. 
 
 The passage of time may make things difficult, he acknowledged, but officers are hoping anyone with information will contact them. 
 
 "If they heard of something that happened within the hospital environment in that time, if they worked there — had relatives working there and heard stories — RCMP investigators would like to hear from them," Cyrenne said. 
 
 Luke Monias and Norman Barkman of Garden Hill First Nation revealed at a news conference last November that DNA tests proved they were switched at birth at the federally run hospital. 
 
 Two other men from Norway House, Leon Swanson and David Tait Jr., came forward with the same story in August. Results from DNA tests last month confirmed their switch. 
 
 Mounties were interviewing Swanson and Tait and their families Friday in Norway House, said former Manitoba aboriginal affairs minister Eric Robinson. 
 
 "I think, finally, we have somebody taking this matter seriously with these guys who've been wronged," said Robinson, who has been working with the four men. 
 
 He has previously said that he believes the confusion must have been criminal, and he still thinks so. 
 
 "You can pass it off once. And a second time ... kinda makes you wonder," Robinson said. 
 
 "Was it an act of racism? Was it an act of neglect?" 
 
 He said he has yet to get reach Monias and Barkman, but Swanson and Tait are welcoming the RCMP investigation. All four men and their families are to meet at the end of October with Health Minister Jane Philpott, he added. 
 
 The two cases have raised the question of whether other babies could have ended up with the wrong families. Health Canada reports 239 babies were born there in 1975. 
 
 Shortly after Swanson and Tait announced they were switched at birth, Health Canada announced it would offer free DNA tests to anyone born at the hospital before 1980. That's when the facility started fitting newborns with identification bands. 
 
 A spokesman has said that due to privacy reasons, he can't reveal whether anyone else has requested DNA tests. 
 
 — By Chris Purdy in Edmonton 
 
 © Copyright Times Colonist
– The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating after revelations that two different sets of babies—at least—were switched at birth at the same hospital 41 years ago, the AP reports. "The RCMP has an obligation to the families involved and to the public to determine if the incidents at the Norway House Indian Hospital were accidental or criminal in nature," CBC quotes the RCMP as saying in a statement Friday. "It's really basically to determine if there was any criminal intent for these babies being switched at birth," RCMP spokesperson Robert Cyrenne tells the Canadian Press. He says the investigation will be difficult because so much time has passed. Police are hoping to speak with anyone who worked at the Manitoba hospital in 1975 or who had friends or family that did. Childhood friends Luke Monias and Norman Barkman discovered last year—via DNA test—they had been switched at birth. A DNA test confirmed the same about acquaintances Leon Swanson and David Tait this year. All four men were born at the Norway House Indian Hospital in 1975. All told, 239 babies were born at the hospital that year. It's possible others were switched at birth and don't know it. Manitoba aboriginal affairs minister Eric Robinson says he's glad someone is finally "taking this matter seriously." "You can pass it off once. And a second time...kinda makes you wonder," he tells the Canadian Press. "Was it an act of racism? Was it an act of neglect?" Health Canada is offering free DNA tests to anyone born at the hospital before 1980.