{"id":16159,"date":"2014-06-20T17:07:22","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T09:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=16159"},"modified":"2014-06-20T16:08:38","modified_gmt":"2014-06-20T08:08:38","slug":"burned-homeless-woman-on-minds-of-participants-in-annual-march-in-prince-albert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/06\/20\/burned-homeless-woman-on-minds-of-participants-in-annual-march-in-prince-albert\/","title":{"rendered":"Burned homeless woman on minds of participants in annual march in Prince Albert"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Aboriginal<\/a>
Aboriginal leader at the 13th Annual Canadian Aboriginal Festival. Photo by Bahman \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RINCE ALBERT, Sask.\u2014Relatives of a homeless woman who was so badly burned in a vicious attack that she had to have both legs amputated have taken part in an annual walk to protest violence against aboriginal people.<\/p>\n

Marlene Bird, 47, of Montreal Lake, Sask., is recovering in an Edmonton hospital from the amputations, skin grafts and reconstructive surgery to her face after being found in downtown Prince Albert on June 1.<\/p>\n

She is now breathing on her own without the aid of life support.<\/p>\n

Bird\u2019s aunt, Lorna Thiessen, took part Thursday in the annual Honouring Our Sisters and Brothers Memorial Walk in Prince Albert.<\/p>\n

She said there needs to be more awareness about the violence faced by aboriginal people and to know that what happened to her niece could happen to anybody at any time.<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019d also like to see practical measures brought in that could teach people how to be safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s bring in some sort of a cab company or a program where people walking after midnight, they\u2019re leaving somewhere, and you know they\u2019re inebriated, let\u2019s call in somebody,\u201d she said. \u201cLet\u2019s call in somebody to help them … RCMP or city police could pick them up and give them a hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marchers also renewed their annual call for a federal inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.<\/p>\n

Mayor Greg Dionne said the issue is not just a Prince Albert problem; it has become a nation\u2019s problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked long enough,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dionne agreed that what happened to Bird could happen to others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could happen in any community and that\u2019s what frightens me,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we have to all work together to prevent it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police have yet to make an arrest in the case.<\/p>\n

The Prince Albert Grand Council has put up a $2,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RINCE ALBERT, Sask.\u2014Relatives of a homeless woman who was so badly burned in a vicious attack that she had to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":13899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-headline","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}