Harold R. Johnson

Harold R. Johnson is an author of nonfiction and fiction. His nonfiction work Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (and Yours) was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction. Born and raised in northern Saskatchewan to a Swedish father and a Cree mother, he is a graduate of Harvard Law School and managed a private practice for several years before becoming a Crown prosecutor. Johnson is a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation and lives in the north end of Saskatchewan, with his wife, Joan. 

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• Cree author Harold R. Johnson reflects on life, death and the quest for stories
• Harold Johnson wants to talk about alcohol in his Indigenous community
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• Why Harold R. Johnson honours the memory of his brother Clifford with new genre-bending memoir
• For the novel Corvus, Harold R. Johnson envisioned a thriving Indigenous community in a dystopian future

Harold Johnson on the nature of memory

"You can't be completely accurate when writing about the past. That's impossible. When you're sitting around with your family and you talk about something that happened a long time ago, you begin to notice that your siblings have different perspectives on the same event.

Who's telling the truth? You or them?- Harold R. Johnson

"Who's telling the truth? You or them? I accept that my version might not be exactly the same as somebody else remembers it. But that's the way I remember it."

Read more of Harold R. Johnson's interview with CBC Books.

Books by Harold R. Johnson

Interviews with Harold R. Johnson

CBC Books7:34Harold R. Johnson on his Canada Reads longlisted book, Corvus

Harold R. Johnson talks to The Afternoon Edition in Saskatchewan about his dystopian novel.

The Next Chapter17:05Harold R. Johnson on Clifford

Harold R. Johnson talks to Shelagh Rogers about his latest book Clifford.

The Current23:50Indigenous people need to tell their stories of sobriety, says lawyer

Harold R. Johnson is an Indigenous crown prosecutor and says alcohol is killing his people. He is urging for a new narrative on alcohol abuse, finding inspiration in those who overcome rather than thinking there are only those who succumb.

Out In The Open6:36'I probably made things worse': Cree former prosecutor looks back regretfully on his work in Saskatchewan

During his 20 years as a lawyer and Crown prosecutor in Northern Saskatchewan, Harold Johnson sent many Indigenous offenders to jail for crimes committed while drunk. This, he says, was not helping anyone. He tells Piya why he now believes Indigenous people should be able to take over justice in their own communities.