Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to provide a personal tribute to Harold R. Johnson, who died last month. Mr. Johnson was Cree from Montreal Lake First Nation in northern Saskatchewan. He straddled two worlds - as a logger, trapper and miner but also as a Harvard-educated lawyer and writer. Above all he was a storyteller.
I met Mr. Johnson in May 2019 when I read his book, Firewater: How Alcohol is Killing my People and Yours.
He reflected on decades he spent as a Crown prosecutor witnessing the damage caused by alcohol abuse - death, life-transforming injuries, families disrupted, lives enslaved by addiction. He believed that alcohol touched every part of our lives whether we drink or not.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Johnson didn't believe in what he called the victim model of dealing with alcohol. He said it didn't offer solutions. It offered excuses to continue alcohol abuse and perpetuate the trauma of colonization and residential schools. He said, "Alcohol doesn't dissolve stress. It dissolves the rules and the feeling of responsibility that creates stress.... We can never fix the problem if the problem is not ours."
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Johnson didn't believe in law enforcement as the answer either because it wasn't holistic enough and nor did he believe in residential treatment because of low long-term success rates. Nor did he think banning alcohol worked because bootleggers control the supply and both Indigenous governments and police efforts to curb are unsuccessful.
I found his analysis and ideas compelling because they offer hope people can gain control over their relationship with alcohol.
Mr. Johnson wanted to inspire people to change the story they tell themselves about alcohol. Mr. Speaker, he promoted local solutions where sober leaders turned their communities into treatment centres where the whole community is involved in finding healthy alternatives. Changing the story means having sober people in our communities tell the story of their sobriety.
Harold and his wife Joan developed a pilot project in northern Saskatchewan to put these ideas into action. They shared their extensive knowledge with community leaders in the NWT last June and they have helped to inform the development of our alcohol strategy.
Mr. Speaker, Harold Johnson left us too soon at age 68 but his legacy of bringing the problem of alcohol abuse to light, along with ideas for solutions, will live on for years to come. Most of all, he inspired us and me to learn and tell a new story. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
