Harold R. Johnson

Canadian lawyer and writer (1954–2022)

Harold R. Johnson
Born	(1954-08-30)August 30, 1954 Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada
Died	February 9, 2022(2022-02-09) (aged 67) Mount Forest, Ontario
Occupation	Lawyer, writer
Nationality	Canadian
Notable works	Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (And Yours)

Harold R. Johnson (August 30, 1954–February 9, 2022)^[1] was a Canadian indigenous lawyer and writer, whose book Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (And Yours) was a shortlisted nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 2016 Governor General's Awards.^[2] The book, an examination of the problem with alcohol consumption among Canadian First Nations, draws on Johnson's work as a Crown prosecutor in northern Saskatchewan.^[3]

Johnson told CBC Radio interviewer Shelagh Rogers in 2016 that his father was a Swedish immigrant and his mother a Cree woman in Saskatchewan, where he was born. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy and worked as a logger, trapper and miner before going to university as an adult, completing his education in law with an MA at Harvard.^[4] He was a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation.^[5]

After being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, Johnson died on February 9, 2022, at the age of 67.^[6] His twelfth and final book, The Power of Story was released posthumously in October 2022.

Bibliography

Fiction

Billy Tinker, Saskatoon, Sask.: Thistledown Press, 2001.
Back Track, Saskatoon, Sask.: Thistledown Press, 2005.
Charlie Muskrat, Saskatoon, Sask.: Thistledown Press, 2008.
The Cast Stone, Saskatoon, Sask.: Thistledown Press, 2011.
Corvus, Saskatoon, Sask.: Thistledown Press, 2015.
The Björkan Sagas, Toronto: Anansi, 2021.

Nonfiction

Two Families: Treaties and Government, Saskatoon, Sask.: Purich Publishing, 2007.
Firewater: How Alcohol is Killing My People (and Yours), Regina, Sask.: Univ of Regina Press, 2016.
Clifford: a Memoir, a Fiction, a Fantasy, a Thought Experiment, Toronto: Anansi, 2018.
Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2019.
Cry Wolf: Inquest into the True Nature of a Predator,^[7] Regina, Sask.: Univ of Regina Press, 2020.
The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era, Windsor, Ont.: Biblioasis, 2022.

References

^ "Harold JOHNSON (Ray)". May 14, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
^ "Two Sask. authors up for Governor General's awards". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, October 5, 2016.
^ "Indigenous people need to tell their stories of sobriety, says lawyer". The Current, September 27, 2016.
^ "Harold R. Johnson on changing the narrative around alcohol in Indigenous communities". CBC Radio. 2017-01-30. Retrieved 2020-04-09. Harold R. Johnson is a Harvard-educated lawyer and crown prosecutor who works in Northern Saskatchewan in Treaty 6 territory. He's also a fiction writer, a trapper and a member of the Montreal Lake Cree nation.
^ "Author, lawyer, trapper Harold R. Johnson passes away". February 9, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
^ "Harold JOHNSON (Ray)". May 14, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
^ "The CBC Books spring reading list: 40 great books to read this season". CBC Books. 2020-04-09. Retrieved 2020-04-09. Johnson takes on wolves and the mythology around them in Cry Wolf. He explores Carnegie's death and other wolf attacks and suggests that we should take wolves more seriously.