Harold R. Johnson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (And Yours) (2016)
- Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada (2019)
- The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era (2022)
Harold R. Johnson | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 30, 1954 Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Died | February 9, 2022 (aged 67) |
| Occupation | Lawyer, writer |
| Notable works |
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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.
Daniel Grenier received a Governor General's Award nomination for English to French translation at the 2024 Governor General's Awards, for his translation of Johnson's Charlie Muskrat.[7]
