Bonnie Allen is a senior reporter with CBC Saskatchewan with 16 years of experience working throughout Canada and countries like Libya, South Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Her passions for travel and human rights have informed many of her career choices and journalistic interests. After taking a leave of absence from CBC in 2005, she moved to West Africa and covered stories of child abuse and exploitation as a freelance journalist. Last year, Allen worked on numerous pieces exploring the horrific assault of Marlene Bird, who was found beaten and burned nearly to death in Prince Albert on June 1.
Ethan Stein: What got you into journalism in the first place?
Bonnie Allen: For me, it was inevitable. From the time I was 12, I knew I would be a journalist. Just one of those people. I’m naturally curious, ask questions, I love to write and tell stories, born journalist.
ES: Were there any publications/outlets you followed growing up?
BA: I grew up on a farm in southwestern Saskatchewan, so my access was the typical Saskatchewan outlets; CBC, the Leader-Post, and my small town newspaper.
ES: So journalism and the media always kind of played a role in your life?
BA: I think it was just a natural transition. I didn’t even know the word journalist when I was in Grade 6 publishing the newspaper. It was a teacher who said, ‘you’re going to be a journalist, aren’t you?’
ES: What was the first very sordid issue story you had to do?
BA: I can remember the first one, it’s been like 16 years now. When I was 22 years old I was covering a murder trial that was gruesome in detail. A young man had raped and murdered his aunt. That was my first experience balancing your gut reaction with your professional duty to remain objective and report the details. That one still sticks out in my mind.
ES: Did it ever get easier doing stories like these as you went further in your career?
BA: I think you learn how to handle it and approach it, but I don’t think you ever want it to become easy.
ES: How difficult was the Marlene Bird piece compared to other grim stories?
BA: I've been a journalist for 16 years, and I've covered many heart-wrenching stories. I think it's impossible to rate or compare tragic events or horrific crimes, and I wouldn't want to. Each one is unique and significant.
ES: Can you tell me what ran through your mind in the moments before the interview with Bird?
BA: I put a lot of thought and care into how I interview victims of crime, particularly victims of sexual assault. When I worked in Liberia, in West Africa, I did several in-depth reporting projects related to child rape, and spent considerable time with children who had been sexually assaulted. You don't just fire off questions. It requires special care and sensitivity, as well as consideration of the possibility of re-victimizing the victim.
ES: How did you approach the interview process? Someone in Marlene's position seems like they would be reluctant to interview.
BA: I had spoken to Marlene Bird on the phone and she invited me to visit her in hospital. She didn't want to talk much over the phone, and I also wanted to sit down with her, face-to-face. Even though she agreed over the telephone, I still wanted to assess her willingness to speak publicly, and gauge how much she felt comfortable sharing. It's her life, and her story, and I made it very clear to Marlene that she was in control of that. For our first visit, Marlene was in good spirits; she joked, smiled, and spoke openly. But that wasn't the case a couple weeks later. Marlene and I had arranged for a follow-up interview and when I arrived in Saskatoon, she was in pain, she was depressed, and angry at everything, and she didn't feel like talking. So we didn't have an interview that day.
ES: Although Marlene was suffering, she was still willing to talk to numerous media outlets. How did you want your story to stand out from the others?
BA: Actually, Marlene wasn't willing to talk to many media outlets in the beginning. In July, she only spoke to two reporters. It was only later, in October, when she was having trouble with housing and services that Marlene shared her story with several media outlets. In July, I wanted to give Marlene the opportunity to tell her own story. She'd been the subject of many media reports, but she didn't have a voice in those stories. During our conversation, Marlene showed her sense of humour and her fierce sense of pride in being independent, and fear of losing that.
ES: How has the media handled Bird's story?
BA: In June, there was some criticism of all media outlets that it took more than a week for the gravity of this attack to be conveyed to the public. The police revealed few details of the attack as part of their investigation strategy. Any information was, initially, rumour. There were no first-hand accounts or direct sources. We interviewed Marlene's aunt at the Edmonton hospital on the day that Marlene had her second leg amputated, and our story that day was the first time Marlene's story was reported on nationally.
ES: Can you elaborate on why you were one of the first ones she spoke with?
BA: I spoke to her on the phone, and I didn’t pressure her to do an interview on the phone. She wanted to meet face-to-face and I also wanted to sit down and spend time with her, and it wasn’t necessarily going to be an interview that first meeting. It was going to depend on how comfortable she felt and how comfortable I felt with her condition. We spoke, we seemed to make a connection, and we agreed to sit down and spend time together. And then it was well over an hour of visiting before we did an interview.
ES: Was the face-to-face meeting more to get a sense of who she was while you were writing an article about her?
BA: Yes, I think I wanted to get a better understanding and gauge her reaction, what kind of condition she was in physically and mentally, but also I wanted to make sure there was nothing lost in translation over the telephone. There was no confusion, because I believe strongly in her right to say no, and set the parameter of the interview. To be a good listener is to also keenly judge or gauge body language, and particularly when you’re talking about so many sensitive topics, you need to do that in person.
ES: Did you learn anything about yourself as a journalist while working on this story?
BA: I learn something every day, and from every person I interview. What I'm most proud of in our coverage of Marlene's story -- not just by me, but also by my colleagues -- is that we didn't treat this as just a crime story. We did dozens of stories on Marlene's life, her history, the social and economic challenges that contributed to her vulnerability, as well as the gaps in our health and social services that she seemed to struggle with after leaving the hospital.
ES: What advice do you have for journalists who may have to cover events like these?
BA: I think that to approach it professionally, you must remember that it takes special care and sensitivity, that you don’t want to re-victimize the victim, and that we shouldn’t, as journalists, have a sense of entitlement to other people’s stories. It is their story; they can share it when they want, with whom they want and how they want.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
