Harold Johnson, LL.M.

Harold Johnson Law Office, La Ronge, Saskatchewan 

Harold Johnson the son of a trapper/fisherman learned about living on the land and with the land  from his family. At 17 he joined the Canadian Armed forces where he learned about marine engineering on board HMCS McKenzie and HMCS Chignecto. Once out of the Navy he worked as an itinerant packsack miner/logger for several years before settling down and working full time for the Key Lake Mining Corporation.

In 1991 he quit mining to attend university. In 1995 he graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a Bachelor’s degree in Law. 

He then interned with the International Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland before attending Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts where he graduated with a Master of Laws degree in 1996.

After articling with Gerry Morin, Q.C., in Prince Albert, Harold became in house counsel for the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

In 2003 Harold and his wife Joan made a big move. They returned to Harold’s ancestral home at the north end of Montreal Lake and built their home. They formed Keewatin Visions a research arm of the Native Law Center of Canada, University of Saskatchewan. Keewatin Visions has researched and prepared papers on: The Youth Criminal Justice Act for the federal department of Justice. Wrote curriculum for the Native Court Workers Program, Intervened at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission license hearing Cameco MacArthur River Project on behalf of miners radiated by an underground flood. Wrote the History of Aboriginal People in Prince Albert National Park and converted the project into curriculum.

Along with Keewatin Visions, in 1993 Harold and Joan opened Harold Johnson Law Office in La Ronge where together they work on Criminal, Family, Real Estate, Wills, Estates, Adoptions etc.

Harold is the author of four books. The first  was a fiction,”Billy Tinker” (2001 Thistledown Press). The second  another fiction “Back Track” (2003 Thistledown Press) followed by the non-fiction “Two Families: Treaties and Government” (2006 Purich Publishing) and “Charlie Muskrat” (2008 Thistledown Press). “Two Families; Treaties and Government” won the 2007 Saskatchewan Book Award for First Peoples Publishing.

Harold balances his work life with running his family trap line, commercial fishing in the co-operative started by his father in 1955. He enjoys his 5 children and 3 grandchildren and specially enjoys taking his grandson out with the dog team.