Bob CollinsMarlene Bird, 50, wanted you to know her name.
She struggled with alcoholism and was homeless in 2014 when she was beaten and set afire. Her legs had to be amputated. She lived with a patch covering her eye. She had been sexually assaulted.
In Canada, the CBC says, publications are banned from printing the names of the victims of sexual assault. But Bird didn’t want to be known as the homeless indigenous woman who was set ablaze. She wanted Canadians to know her name.
So she fought to lift a publication ban on her name and won.
Her attacker was sentenced to 16 years in prison at his trial in September. He said he was sorry and Bird said she tried to forgive him.
“She forgave him,” her partner said. “But she just wanted to get that out of her mind. Drink hard and not think about it.”
Her family disclosed today that she died in Prince Albert, Sask., a few days after being admitted with failing kidneys and liver.
Her name was Marlene Bird.
