Retired La Ronge prosecutor plans to continue advocacy work
Harold Johnson may have retired as a Crown Prosecutor, but he’s not planning to sit back and relax any time soon.
Johnson, who served as a prosecutor in La Ronge for nine years before retiring last month, said he plans to stay in his home community and continue both his writing and widely-praised work with the Northern Alcohol Strategy. As a prosecutor in the North who was also born in the region, Johnson said he was able to establish trust with victims and witnesses, meaning he had a much easier time than other lawyers.
“The biggest problem with prosecutions is getting people to come to court and tell the court what happened. People are very reluctant to testify,” he said. “I didn’t have that problem.”
Johnson said that as a prosecutor, he quickly began to notice the huge number of criminal cases involving alcohol or alcohol abuse. As many as 95 per cent of all the offenders were drunk when they committed their crimes, Johnson said, which meant the issue was larger than just the justice system. Johnson was instrumental in the creation of the Northern Alcohol Strategy, a provincial initiative meant to help tackle the pervasive issue.