Top stories of 2014: Marlene Bird’s attack and recovery

The June attack

The road behind Marlene Bird, a mother and grandmother originally from Montreal Lake Cree Nation, was by all accounts a rough one.

Alcohol had already taken a toll on her family, taking the lives of two of her sisters. Bird herself had been working through her own struggles, which also included what has been described as a transient life.

On June 1, she became the victim of a violent attack. She was discovered burned and cut, but alive. One of the first people to find her, Stacy Free, described what she saw as horrific. She and a friend had been called over to where Bird was laying by a man who asked them for a phone to call 911.

Weeks after the attack, Free described the experience, and said Bird said “help me, help me.”

“I knew there was nothing I could do. I just basically stood where she could see me,” she said.

Help did arrive and Bird was eventually transported to a burn unit at an Edmonton hospital. She underwent skin grafts and surgery for wounds to her face. She was intubated and was unable to speak, and communicated using nods and moving her fingers.

But the injuries to her legs were so severe that doctors had to perform amputations.

By the end of June, the tubes to help her breathe were removed and her first words to her aunt Lorna Thiessen were “oh hi, aunty.”

Bird recovered to a point where she could be moved back to Saskatchewan and was moved to a hospital in Saskatoon where she started physiotherapy.

In the fall, she returned to Prince Albert. When Bird she returned she had nothing but her belongings, a scooter and a wheelchair.

Questions surrounded the circumstances involved in her release from the hospital, as she arrived in the city in a taxi, with no permanent place to stay.

An arrest is made

At the end of June, the Prince Albert Police arrested Leslie Ivan Roderick Black in connection to the attack.

He was charged with aggravated sexual assault and attempted murder.

The 29-year-old man’s arrest came after police searched his home.

The aggravated sexual assault charge and Black’s first court appearance meant that Bird’s name was now automatically subject to a publication ban. Bans such as this one are aimed at protecting alleged sex assault victims.

But Marlene Bird and her family didn’t agree with the ban. Bird wanted to be a voice for all women – and she didn’t want to become another statistic.

She wrote a letter the court, requesting the publication ban be removed. On July 8, a Prince Albert Provincial court judge removed the ban.

On Oct. 1, Bird sat in court for one of Black’s appearances. She was in a wheelchair and one of her eyes was covered by a bandage.

The case has continued to wind through the court system, with Black still expected to opt for a trial by judge and jury or by judge alone.

His next court appearance is set for Jan. 12.

Support pours in for Bird

The story of Marlene Bird’s attack caught the attention of not just the community in Prince Albert, or just across the province. It touched people living in communities large and small in other provinces across Canada.

A number of people organized fundraisers aimed at helping Bird through her recovery. After her double-leg amputation, she would need a means to get around. Someone donated a scooter to assist with that.

People have been able to make donations through the YWCA, and the funds go to a trust fund opened by Montreal Lake Cree Nation.

About $35,000 has been donated to the trust through the YWCA. The donations have come in from all across Canada, Brooks said in December. She said the odd donation still trickles in.

The proceeds from a recent fundraiser in Ontario were sent in, she added.

“There’s a little bit still happening out there.”

Brooks said this is good because when it comes to looking into permanent housing for Bird, her new home may need to be retrofitted to become accessible.

When she looked back at all that has happened, Brooks said it’s deeply affected her. She said it affected her when it initially happened.

“It really affected me … the severity and the brutalness of the attack really affected me profoundly. That somebody, you know, would be attacked like that.”

But what affects her where Bird is concerned is that Bird just wants to be able to live her life as she lived it before.

“And that attack, where she’s now lost her legs, it’s ripped away her ability to live her normal, to live her life the way she’s lived it. And it puts her at risk.”

Anyone looking to donate to assist Marlene Bird can still do so through the YWCA.

-With files from James Bowler and Chelsea Laskowski.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by Thia James

Top stories of 2014: Marlene Bird’s attack and recovery

What's Trending