Harold R. Johnson | |
---|---|
Born | Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada | August 30, 1954
Died | February 9, 2022 Mount Forest, Ontario | (aged 67)
Occupation | Lawyer, writer |
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.
Fiction
Nonfiction
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.
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.
International | |
---|---|
National | |
Other |